Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus

The Oresteia recounts three linked mythic tales of revenge: the first recounting the murder of King Agamemnon after he returned from the Siege of Troy, with Queen Clytemnestra killing her husband to avenge his sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia to secure a safe journey home; in the second, their son Orestes murders Clytemnestra to avenge his father; and in the third, Orestes is pursued by the Erinyes, also known as the Furies, the three female deities of vengeance.

The violence of The Oresteia found echoes in Bacon's own tortured personal life, from the physical abuse he suffered at the hands of his father, through his preference for roughly masochistic homosexual encounters, and the suicide of his lover George Dyer.

The triptych form echoes a Christian altarpiece, with the main "crucifixion" in the central panel flanked by two supporting figures.

In the central panel, the mutilated body of the king, with the spine exposed, is raised on a box-like dais, with blocks of the floor and wall coloured blood red.

In each of the left and right panels, the monstrous form of a Fury is suspended in a wire framed box in front of an open door.