Le Combat : une femme implorant pour le vaincu

William Etty built his reputation on the nude, and here he used it to teach. A warrior kneels, his sword snapped, at the mercy of a standing soldier about to strike, while a near-naked woman throws herself against the victor's arm to beg for the loser's life. Etty invented the scene himself rather than borrowing from history or the Bible, wanting, in his own words, to paint the beauty of mercy. He had been studying the recently arrived Elgin Marbles in London, and their muscular bodies feed these straining figures. The canvas runs to about four metres across. When it was shown in 1825 the critics, so often hostile to his nudes, praised it almost without exception.