Artist: Mary F. Raphael (British, active 1889–1917)
Title: Britomart and Amoret
Medium: Antique heliogravure on wove paper after the original painting by a Master Engraver.
Dimensions: Image Size 6 3/8 x 9 7/8 inches.
Framed Dimensions: Approximately 16 x 19 inches.
Framing: This piece has been professionally matted and framed using all new materials.
Britomart And Amoret illustrates a scene from book III of The Faerie Queene, a 16th-century allegorical epic poem by Edmund Spenser, in which Busirane, an evil sorcerer, abducts the beautiful Amoret (representing married virtue), and tortures her to the point of death. The heroic female warrior Britomart (representing both chastity and Elizabeth I) battles through obstacles to reach the chamber in which Amoret is being held, and slays Busirane moments before he is able to kill Amoret.