Many artists have illustrated scenes or created portraits of characters from Shakespeare's plays. Comparing the pictures with the plays can often illuminate the text or at least stimulate responses to it. Below are two versions of an illustration of part of the final scene of The Two Gentlemen of Verona by nineteenth-century Pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt. Studying the picture and the sketch helps to clarify one way of reading the passage they illustrate.

Hunt depicts the crucial moment when Proteus is confronted with his offensive behavior toward both Sylvia and Valentine. (His awareness of Julia's presence comes later in the scene.) Compare Hunt's painting with his preliminary sketch of it below.

• Valentine Rescuing Sylvia from Proteus (see also Harry Rusche, "Shakespeare Illustrated" [Emory University], which contains many other illustrations of Shakespeare's plays).
  
  
• Study for Valentine Rescuing Sylvia from Proteus (British Museum; Timothy Hilton, The Pre-Raphaelites [New York: Praeger, 1970], pl. 24). Reproduced by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.

1. Identify each of the main characters and explain Hunt's physical presentation of them in relation to one another. Notice particularly the position of Sylvia and the placement of the hands of Proteus and Valentine in the painting. What emotions are represented by their gestures?

2. Notice also the original position of Sylvia and the placement of the hands in the preliminary sketch. What important change did Hunt make when he moved from the sketch to the painting?

3. What statement does Hunt's painting seem to make about the role of and attitudes toward women at this point in the scene?

Hunt, Valentine Rescuing Sylvia from Proteus (City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham; Raymond Watkinson, Pre-Raphaelite Art and Design [Greenwich: New York Graphic Society, 1970], pl. 24). Reproduced by permission of the Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery.

Back to Holman Hunt's study for the painting.                                Back to English 442 Home Page.