Vol. 123, no. 940, pp. 414-17.
Following detailed visual examination of P163 Meleager and Atalanta at Tate, London the author confirms that John Hamilton Mortimer repainted in whole or in part the recumbent figure in the left foreground and the two standing figures with spears in the right foreground but not the group on the left. Simon argues that, though done at the request of Robert Sayer, the owner of the painting and publisher of the subsequent engraving [E46], the introduction of Mortimer's high-lighted bodies transformed the tonality of the whole composition for the worse. Wilson himself believed that Mortimer had ruined 'the unity of effect' that he had achieved. The article concludes with a discussion of a drawing of the central group of figures and background usually believed to be by Mortimer but here attributed to Joseph Farington (NWD406)
