1776, Benjamin West, Fidelia and Speranza (detail) -- Timken Museum of Art (San Diego)
From the museum label: Benjamin West grew up outside of Philadelphia. His artistic talent was recognized early on by patrons who sent him to study in Europe, first in Italy and then in England. West remained abroad for the rest of his life and went on to be named the First Historical Painter to King George Ill and, later in 1792, the second President of the Royal Academy. Despite his meteoric rise within British artistic circles, West's allegiances to his homeland remained strong throughout his career. He painted Fidelia and Speranza in 1776, the year in which the colonies declared their independence from England. The painting might be understood as an elaborate allegory of the artist's divided loyalty. The subject is taken from Edmund Spenser's poem, The Faerie Queene (1590) and depicts the twin, intertwined personifications of Faith (Fidelia) and Hope (Speranza) as they prepare to minister a distraught Red Crosse Knight back to health. West painted several works drawn from Spenser's epic during the last decades of the 18th century. Fidelia and Speranza, in particular, seems freighted with political intention and the artist's unspoken belief that the British Empire ought to restore itself through Christian virtues as the revolutionary crisis in North America deepened.
1776, Benjamin West, Fidelia and Speranza (detail) -- Timken Museum of Art (San Diego)
From the museum label: Benjamin West grew up outside of Philadelphia. His artistic talent was recognized early on by patrons who sent him to study in Europe, first in Italy and then in England. West remained abroad for the rest of his life and went on to be named the First Historical Painter to King George Ill and, later in 1792, the second President of the Royal Academy. Despite his meteoric rise within British artistic circles, West's allegiances to his homeland remained strong throughout his career. He painted Fidelia and Speranza in 1776, the year in which the colonies declared their independence from England. The painting might be understood as an elaborate allegory of the artist's divided loyalty. The subject is taken from Edmund Spenser's poem, The Faerie Queene (1590) and depicts the twin, intertwined personifications of Faith (Fidelia) and Hope (Speranza) as they prepare to minister a distraught Red Crosse Knight back to health. West painted several works drawn from Spenser's epic during the last decades of the 18th century. Fidelia and Speranza, in particular, seems freighted with political intention and the artist's unspoken belief that the British Empire ought to restore itself through Christian virtues as the revolutionary crisis in North America deepened.