Heroism and Humanity

Heroism and Humanity illustrates an incident from the life of the King of Scots Robert the Bruce (1274-1329), famous for securing victory over the English at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. This painting is set in Ireland in 1318, Bruce's forces having invaded in 1315 and his brother Edward proclaimed High King of Ireland. However, things went wrong and in 1318 their army was in retreat from pro-English forces. The painting shows the moment when Bruce apparently halted his men and was prepared to fight in order to save a woman, weak from childbirth, rather than abandon her to his pursuers. In this highly romanticised scene, Bruce, fist defiantly in the air, is represented as the embodiment o...