Lot 1577
ATTRIBUTED TO CHARLES VANDELEUR FOLEY (Fl.1843- d.1868)
SUBJECTS FROM LORD BYRON'S `MANFRED: A DRAMATIC POEM`
A suite of sixteen, oil on canvas mounted on shaped panels, possibly intended for a furnishing scheme, eight framed
Eight framed 20 x 40.5cm and eight unframed 51 x 32cm. (16)
* Byron's `Manfred` was written in 1816-1817. The metaphysical drama was written at a point of turmoil in Byron's life when his chaotic and shortlived marriage to Annabella Millbanke had broken up following scandalous rumours and there were allegations of incest with his half sister, Augusta Leigh. Two daughters, Medora and Ada, resulted from each relationship. Byron fled to Switzerland, never to return to Britain, and there devised this complex poem. Its themes of tormented guilt for an unaddressed misdemeanour suggest that it may be a confessional. For example, Manfred's relationship with the dead Astarte draws comparisons with the allegations concerning Augusta Leigh.
The supernatural references may derive from the rise in popularity of horror fiction and the innovation of ghost stories, related to other works of the period such as Mary Shelley's `Frankenstein`, which was also written in 1816 but not published until 1818. Musical interpretations of the work were devised by Robert Schumann in 1852 and, later, by Tchaikovsky in his `Manfred Symphony` of 1885.
