Bower of Bliss

The setting of this work is a recreation of a Henry Fuseli illustration ‘Amavia finds her Knight, Sir Mordant, bewitched in Acrasia's Bower of Bliss’ (c.1810), —an erotic boudoir scene illustrating Spenser’s Faerie Queen:

Her snowy breast was bare to readie spoyle
Of hungry eies, which n’ote therewith be fild;
And yet, through languor of her late sweet toyle,
Few drops, more cleare then Nectar, forth distild. . .
(II.xii.78).

Lowe’s Acrasia was inspired by Rubens’ ‘Roman Charity, or, Cimon and Pero’ (c.1613). The surrounding figures appear as fragmented ruins of ancient sculpture, having been turned to stone by the seductive Acrasia.

(II.xii.78)
Lowe’s Acrasia was inspired by Rubens’ ‘Roman Charity, or, Cimon and Pero’ (c.1613). The surrounding figures appear as fragmented ruins of ancient sculpture, having been turned to stone by the seductive Acrasia.