Alexander Runciman Orpheus charming the People Brush and brown and grey wash over black chalk During the four years he spent in Rome, Runciman was interested in the writers of antiquity, whose subjects were extremely popular with artists in the latter half of the eighteenth century. This drawing shows Orpheus playing his lute to the people, a scene from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Orpheus' talents for music-making were renowned in the ancient world and this subject was visited by several of Runciman's contemporaries, most notably James Jefferys (1751-1784). The semi-naked state of the figures clustered around Orpheus in this composition is intended to show the primitive state of society at the time. Apprenticed at fourteen to an Edinburgh decorating firm, Runciman showed early artistic promise, exhibiting landscapes as early as 1762. He quitted Edinburgh for Rome in the spring of 1767 and there came into contact with Fuseli, an artist who's friendship was to have a profound effect on Runciman's work. Until 1770 (when Fuseli arrived in Rome) Runciman's work had shown a dark, brooding drama, most clearly manifested in his constant use of chiaroscuro, but this was tempered with a desire to emulate the classicism of his friend James Barry. Fuseli encouraged Runciman to throw off this restraint and to develop the expressive qualities inherent in his drawings, thereby forging a distinctive style in which drama is the driving force. Runciman returned to Edinburgh in 1771, and from 1772 until his death in 1785 was the Director of the Trustee's Academy there. . |
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