Edwin and elgiva (or edwy and elgiva), anonymous engraving reproducing the painting "edwy and elgiva" by elizabeth harvey presented at the salon of 1812 (number 468 of the booklet), with the following description:
"in 953, edwy, grandson of alfred the great, ascended the throne at the age of eighteen; he had the most beautiful face; at the same time there lived a beautiful princess of royal blood, named elgiva, who had made such a strong impression on the heart of the young king, that he married her in spite of his former advisors, and although she was his relative. / on the day of his coronation the nobility gathered in a large room where she abandoned herself to the excesses of the table, while edwy, attracted by sweeter pleasures, sought the queen in his mother's apartment; there he indulged in the love that elgiva inspired in him, when dunstan, taking odo, archbishop of canterbury, with him, broke into the apartment where the queen was, overwhelmed her with insults by tearing her from edwy's arms, to whom he made the most insulting reproaches. "
the engraving was probably not directly inspired by the painting, but rather by the line engraving of the painting by normand fils published in annales du musée et de l'école moderne des beaux-arts in 1812. Object Type: print. Date: 1816.
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