![Tom Phillips, Iris Murdoch, and the Flaying of Marsyas Tom Phillips, Iris Murdoch, and the Flaying of Marsyas](https://i0.wp.com/irismurdochsociety.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/tp-portrait.png?resize=611%2C600&ssl=1)
Tom Phillips, Iris Murdoch, and the Flaying of Marsyas
Murdochās great love of the Flaying of Marsyas ignited Phillipsā inspiration. āWhen the National Portrait Gallery commissioned me to paint her portrait I recalled our conversationā, he said, and he āstarted a fairly hasty copy of the picture to act as a backdrop so that she might sit in front of the head of Marsyas.’ Phillips sketched in the Titian with broad brushstrokes; in contrast, he rendered the image of Murdoch herself with great precision and imbued it with a translucent, otherworldly light