Brig Mercury

In May 1829 the little Russian brig Mercury, outgunned ten to one, turned to fight two Turkish ships of the line — and lived to tell of it. Sixty years later Aivazovsky, the great painter of the sea, returned to the story and set the whole horizon burning.

It hangs opposite the Temeraire deliberately: two farewells to the age of fighting sail, one English and elegiac, one Russian and ablaze. Stand between them and you can feel the century turn.

The Mercury is the small pale shape at the centre, dwarfed by towering hulls — yet every gun on the canvas seems to point at her without touching her. Aivazovsky painted water the way other men painted faces; watch how the swell carries the smoke sideways.