Casgliadau Arlein

Salted paper print. Theodore Talbot (1839-1876), the eldest son of Christopher (Kit) Rice Mansel Talbot of Margam and nephew of the Llewelyns, on the steps at front of Penllergare House. Inscription in Greek at right of photo. An eagle drawn in pencil at bottom and started but not finished at the top. The inscription has been identified as an ancient Greek quotation from Aeschylus’s Prometheus, translated as ‘I call for the sun who sees everything’. The character of Prometheus, the Titan who was punished by Zeus (whose symbol is an eagle) for giving humans the gift of fire, was popularized by the publication of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem Prometheus Unbound in 1820. Thereza’s diaries from 1856 describe Mr Knight helping the children to make a ‘tableau vivant’ from a Walter Scott novel for their father to photograph. Here, Theo plays the part of Prometheus in another example of the connections between reading, home theatricals and photography.