Odysseus verspottet Polyphem

Turner worked this up in 1829 from oil sketches he had made on a trip through Italy the year before, and the Mediterranean light he saw there floods the whole canvas. The story comes from Homer's Odyssey: Ulysses has blinded the one-eyed giant Polyphemus and is sailing away, and here he stands on his gilded ship with his arms flung up, jeering back at the wounded giant, whose vast shadowy body is half dissolved into the cliffs and cloud above. The real drama is the sunrise. Turner lets the rising sun burn through the mist until form almost melts, and if you look into the glare you can just make out the horses of Apollo pulling the sun god's chariot up out of the sea.