The life and writings of Henry Fuseli Volume I Part 27

(Vide aeschylus.)

1804--The Rosicrusian Cavern. (Vide Spectator.)

1805--The Corinthian Maid.

1806--Count Ugolino, Chief of the Guelphs, of Pisa, locked up by the opposite party with his four sons, and starved to death in the Tower which from that event acquired the name of _Torre della Fame_. (Vide Inferno.)--Milton dictating to his Daughter.

1807--Criemhild, the Widow of Sivril, shews to Trony, in prison, the head of Gunther, his accomplice in the a.s.sa.s.sination of her Husband.

1808--Cardinal Beaufort terrified by the supposed Apparition of Gloucester. (Vide Henry VI. Part 2d, Act 3rd, Scene 3.)

1809--Romeo contemplating Juliet in the Monument. (Vide Shakspeare's Romeo and Juliet.)--The encounter of Romeo and Paris in the Monument of the Capulets (ditto).

1810--Hercules, to deliver Theseus, a.s.sails and Wounds Pluto on his Throne. (Vide Iliad, Book V. v. 485.)

1811--Macbeth consulting the vision of the armed Head. (Vide Shakspeare's Macbeth.)--Sarpedon slain in battle, carried home by Sleep and Death. (Iliad, Book XVII. v. 682.)--Richard the Third starting from the Apparition of those whom he had a.s.sa.s.sinated.

(Vide Shakspeare.)--Dion seeing a female Spectre overturn his altars and sweep his hall. (Vide Plutarch's Life of Dion.)

1812--Lady Macbeth seizes the daggers (a sketch for a large picture).--The Witch and the Mandrake. (Vide Ben Jonson.)--Eros reviving Psyche. (Apuleius.)--Ulysses addressing the Shade of Ajax in Tartarus.

1814--Sigelind, Sifrid's mother, roused by the contest of the good and evil Genius about her infant son. (Vide Liet der Nibelunge XI.)--Queen Mab.

"She gallops night by night through lovers' brains."

(Vide Romeo and Juliet.)--Criemhild mourning over Sifrid. (Vide Liet der Nibelungen XVII.)

1817--Perseus starting from the cave of the Gorgons. (Hesiod's Shield of Hercules.)--Theodore in the haunted wood, deterred from rescuing a female chased by an infernal Knight. (Vide Boccaccio's Decameron.)--Criemhild throwing herself on the body of Sivril, a.s.sa.s.sinated by Trony, (Das Nibelungen Lied.)--Sivril, secretly married to Criemhild, surprised by Trony on his first interview with her after the victory over the Saxons (ditto).

1818--Dante, in his descent to h.e.l.l, discovers amidst the flight of hapless lovers whirled about in a hurricane, the forms of Paolo and Franscesca of Rimini. (Vide Inferno, Canto 5.)--A scene of the Deluge.

1820--An Incantation. (See the Pharmaceutria of Theocrites.)--Criemhild, the Widow of Siegfried the Swift, exposes his body, a.s.sisted by Sigmond her father, King of Belgium; in the minster at Worms, and swearing to his a.s.sa.s.sination, challenges Hagen, Lord of Trony, and Gunther, King of Burgundy, his brother, to approach the corpse, and on the wounds beginning to flow, charges them with the murder. (Lied der Nibelungen, Adventure 17. 4085, &c.)--Ariadne, Theseus, and the Minotaur in the Labyrinth. (Vide Virgil, aen. 6.)

1821--Amphiaraus, a chief of the Argolic league against Thebes, endowed with prescience, to avoid his fate, withdrew to a secret place known only to Eriphyle his wife, which she, seduced by the presents of Polynices, disclosed: thus betrayed, he, on departing, commanded Alcmaeon his son, on being informed of his death, to destroy his mother. Eriphyle fell by the hand of her son, who fled, pursued by the Furies.--Jealousy (a sketch).--Prometheus delivered by Hercules (a drawing).

1823--The Dawn,

"Under the opening eye-lids of the morn: What time the gray-fly winds his sultry horn."

Vide Milton's Lycidas.

1824--Amoret delivered by Britomart from the spell of Busyrane.

(Vide Fairy Queen.)

1825--Comus. (Vide Milton.)--Psyche.

Such were the labours of Fuseli, for exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts; but these are only a small part of the pictures executed by him, during a long and arduous life,--works which will shew to posterity the energies of his mind, the richness of his invention, and the profundity of his knowledge.

APPENDIX.

The following article upon the character of Fuseli, as an artist, is from the pen of William Young Ottley, Esq. F.S.A.

"A very slight comparison of the works of Sir Joshua Reynolds with the portraits habitually produced by the painters of this country during the first half of the last century, and whose merits, for the most part, as pictures, now fit them only for the housekeeper's room or the garret, will suffice to establish his claim as a restorer of art and a reformer of public taste. Somewhat later, Mr.

West produced his 'Death of Wolfe,' and some other pictures representing subjects of our national history, which much surpa.s.sed what had before been done among us in that way; and in landscape, we had the now justly admired Wilson.

"In the highest department of painting however, which not improperly may be termed poetic or epic painting, we had still no artist of any eminence; when in the year 1779, Mr. Fuseli, after a stay of eight years in Italy, came and settled among us. Of Mortimer, who had shortly before died young, great expectations, it is true, had been formed; and we had then also Cipriani, a Florentine, who, in his way an excellent draughtsman, long continued uninterruptedly to furnish our portfolios with pretty designs of sporting Nymphs, Cupids, and Graces. But the former, although conversant with the human figure, was too easily led to imitate the deformed and squalid in nature, and was deficient in greatness of style; and the genius of the latter wanted the nerve requisite to fit him for subjects requiring force and expression.

"The genius of Mr. Fuseli was of a very different cla.s.s. An intimate acquaintance with the learned languages had early enabled him to fill his mind from the rich storehouses of ancient poesy; he was all energy and imagination. But in his youth, not then intending to practise painting professionally, he had not subjected himself, as an artist, to the restraints of an academic education.

To curb his genius afterwards was impossible; and to this circ.u.mstance we must attribute much of that fine wildness of character which distinguishes his performances; not unmixed, it is true, with a certain exaggeration of manner in the drawing and action of the figures, but which still no person of fancy would consent to exchange for the regulated but cold manner too often learned in schools. Had it been the intention of Mr. Fuseli to devote his pencil to the representation of subjects of real, sober history, the every-day occurrences of life, this peculiarity in his style, often amounting to extravagance, would have been inapplicable. But it has ever been his aim, especially in his larger works, to soar in the sublime regions of Poetry; and what, it may be asked, is Poetry, if entirely divested of amplification?

"A style founded upon ordinary nature, such as we see every day, is certainly ill-fitted to subjects of the above elevated description; and should it be objected, as a consequence of this fact, that such subjects are therefore not the proper subjects for painting at all, may it not be asked, what is then to be said of many of the greatest works of Michelangiolo, of several of those of Raffaelle, of the admired performances of Giulio Romano at Mantua, and of many of the most extensive compositions even of Rubens? Nor can it be insisted that such cases are not in point, inasmuch as those artists did not use the same exaggeration of style in their naked figures as we see in those of Mr. Fuseli: for, although they did not exaggerate in the same manner, yet they all did exaggerate; Michelangiolo, by giving to his figures that immensity of character, which has occasioned them to be appropriately styled 'a race of giants;' Raffaelle and Giulio, amongst other things, by encreasing in thickness the limbs of their figures beyond what nature will commonly be found to justify; and Rubens, by a mixed augmentation of muscle and obesity, which, were his figures alive, might, perhaps, be found to have given them, in most cases, the appearance of encreased strength, without the reality: to say nothing of Parmigiano, whose works, though deservedly esteemed, often display, in the outlines and proportions of the figures, a far greater degree of extravagance than can generally be detected in those of the respected Professor of Painting to our Royal Academy.[74] But enough has been said to shew that the greatest artists have not thought that a style of drawing strictly imitative of common nature, was well adapted to subjects of an ideal character. It may be proper that we should now add a few words upon the style of Mr. Fuseli in particular.

"It is well known that the human figure, trained and disciplined by gymnastic exercises, presents to the eye an appearance very different from that which we perceive in the bodies of persons of inert habits accidentally seen naked, or stripped for the purpose of being drawn from. The frequent opportunities of viewing the human figure naked, which were afforded to the ancient Greek artists, by the public games and festivals used among them, could not fail to render this familiar to them; and accordingly, besides the correctness of proportion which we admire in their works, we find in their statues the nicest distinctions of this kind, exactly suited to the age, dignity, and habits of life of the different personages they were intended to represent. To their figures of G.o.ds and Heroes, it is well known they were accustomed to give proportions more or less differing from those which they commonly adopted when representing the figures of ordinary men; and this variation from any thing like a common standard is especially observable in the celebrated colossal statue upon Monte Cavallo, of the sublime excellence of which all men may now form a judgment from the bronze cast of it lately erected in one of our parks: for, besides that the arch formed under the breast by the ribs, and the divisions of the abdominal muscles are more strongly marked in that statue than in almost all others, the lower limbs bear to the rest of the figure a greater proportionate length than we find in perhaps any other example of ancient sculpture. A figure like this, uniting in the fullest manner strength and activity with dignity, was peculiarly adapted to subjects of an elevated and energetic character, such as at all times pressed upon the imagination of Mr.

Fuseli; and accordingly he made its proportions the basis of his style. If it be urged that he too constantly kept to the proportions of the above model, it may be answered that few or none of the painters of modern times have shewn a disposition to imitate the ancients in that nice discrimination of character in their naked figures, which has been noticed above; and it is well known that it has been objected, even against Michelangiolo, the greatest designer of all, that the numerous figures in his stupendous 'Last Judgment,' however varied in att.i.tude, are all of nearly the same character of form. The fact is, that Mr. Fuseli's style of design is of the most elevated kind, and consequently best suited to subjects of a very elevated character.

"In respect of invention, composition, clair-obscure, the works of Mr. Fuseli generally merit unmixed praise; and although in the more technical parts of colouring, they have not equal pretensions, still in this also they deserve commendation; being commonly painted in that solemn tone of colouring which we admire in the works of the greatest fresco-painters, and which Sir Joshua Reynolds observes to be so well adapted to the higher kind of pictorial representation. As an inventor, he equals the greatest painters that have lived since the restoration of the art. No one was ever more fully gifted with the rare faculty of at once discovering, in the writer he is perusing, the point of the story, and the moment of time, best calculated to produce a forcible effect in painting. The loftier his subject, the more easily he reaches it; and when he undertakes that at which another artist would tremble, he is the most sure of success. The truth of this was especially made manifest in the year 1799, when Mr. Fuseli exhibited publicly a large collection of his works, under the t.i.tle of 'The Milton Gallery;' the subjects of by far the greater part of the pictures having been taken by him from the 'Paradise Lost.' The magnificent imagery of this poem, the beautiful, the sublime, or the terrific character of the personages represented in it, and of the actions described, all combined to fit it for the display of the artist's surprising genius in its fullest force; besides which, the style of Mr. Fuseli was here exactly suited to his subject. But although the series, as a whole, was one of the greatest works of painting ever produced, which (certainly in its kind the most perfect,) elevating the painter to the same rank as the poet; it failed, as the poem itself had originally done, to ensure to its author that immediate share of public favour which was his due, and which is sure to be attendant upon successful endeavours in those inferior branches of the art which are more within the range of public capacity.

"But the fashion or opinion of the day, in matters of taste, is not always the judgment of posterity; and it cannot be too much regretted that the princ.i.p.al pictures of the series, at least, have not been kept together for the future advantage of our artists, and the gratification of those whose studies might hereafter qualify them to appreciate their excellence. For be it remembered, by such persons as might otherwise be too readily induced to undervalue that which they do not understand, that Sir Joshua Reynolds became, in the latter part of his life, 'clearly of opinion that a relish for the higher excellencies of the art is an acquired taste, which no man ever possessed without long cultivation, great labour, and attention.'"

VERSES

TO HENRY FUSELI, ESQ. R.A.

ON HIS SERIES OF PICTURES FROM THE POETICAL WORKS OF MILTON.

BY WM. ROSCOE, ESQ.

Spirit of him who wing'd his daring flight Towards the pure confines of primaeval light, Say, whilst this nether world thy powers confin'd, Weak child of dust, frail offspring of mankind, Thy station'd barrier this terrestrial mound, Th' inc.u.mbent vault of heaven thine upward bound, Thy means the common energies of man, Thy life a shadow, and thy years a span; How couldst thou, struggling with opposing Fate, Burst through the limits of this mortal state?

Thence, soaring high, pursue, with stedfast gaze, The opening wonders of th' empyreal blaze, Where countless Seraphs pour, in burning zone, Concentric glories round th' eternal throne?

Or hear, and hearing live, the dread alarms Of heavenly war, and Cherubim in arms; See in th' abyss the proud apostate hurl'd, And rising into light, the infant World?

Fav'rite of Heaven! 'twas thine, on mortal eyes To pour these visions, rich with rainbow dyes, Peopling the void of s.p.a.ce with forms unseen, Rising from being to what might have been!-- Nor he not breathes a portion of thy fire, Who "bids the pencil answer to the lyre;"

Marks the bright phantoms at their proudest height, And with determin'd hand arrests their flight; Bids shadowy forms substantial shape a.s.sume, And heaven's own hues in mortal labours bloom.

For toils like these, whate'er the meed divine, That glorious meed, my Fuseli, is thine, Who first to Truth's embodied fulness wrought The glowing outline of the Poet's thought.

Artist sublime! whose pencil knows to trace The early wonders of the kindred race!

Not thine to search th' historian's scanty page, The brief memorial of a fleeting age; Not thine to call, from Time's surrounding gloom, High deeds of cultur'd Greece, or conqu'ring Rome; Not thine, with temporary themes to move, Of Hope, Aversion, Pity, Rage, or Love.-- Beyond whate'er the Drama's powers can tell, Beyond the Epic's high, impetuous swell, Alike by clime and ages unconfined, Thou strik'st the chords that vibrate on mankind; Op'st the dread scenes that Heaven suspensive eyed, A world created, or a world destroy'd; Recall'st the joys of Eden's happier prime, Whilst life was yet unconscious of a crime, Whilst Virtue's self could Pa.s.sion's glow approve, And Beauty slumber'd in the arms of Love; Till, dread reverse! on man's devoted race Th' insidious serpent work'd the dire disgrace.

Then first, whilst Nature shudder'd with affright, Of Sin and Death was held th' incestuous rite; Then first, o'er vanquish'd man, began their reign, The fiends of Woe, the family of Pain: Disease the poison'd cup of anguish fills, And opes the Lazar-house of human ills-- See Frenzy rushes from his burning bed; See pining Atrophy declines his head; See mute Despair, that broods on woes unknown, And Melancholy gaze herself to stone!

Then, pouring forth from h.e.l.l's detested bound, Revenge, and Fraud, and Murder stalk around; Till opening skies declare th' avenging G.o.d, And Mercy sleeps, whilst Justice waves the rod.

Yet, whilst the bursting deluge from the earth Sweeps the rebellious brood of giant birth, One proud survivor rolls his vengeful eyes, And with last look the living G.o.d defies.

But now the waves their silent station keep, And Vengeance slumbers o'er the mighty deep; Again, rejoicing o'er the firm fix'd land, The favour'd Patriarch leads his household band; With sacred incense bids his altars blaze, And pours to G.o.d the living song of praise.

Thus, as th' immortal Bard his flight explores, On kindred wing the daring artist soars; Undazzled shares with him Heaven's brightest glow, Or penetrates the boundless depths below; Or on the sloping sun-beam joys to ride, Or sails amidst the uncreated void; Imbibes a portion of his sacred flame, Reflects his genius, and partakes his fame.

ODE

ADDRESSED TO HENRY FUSELI, ESQ. R.A.

ON SEEING ENGRAVINGS FROM HIS DESIGNS,