654 NOTES OF AN ARTIST. FUSELI. 



idea of their having een p.ainted purposely to frighten the fancy from 

 its propriety, as a nurse imposes upon the imagination of children. 

 It was, without doubt, the predominant bias of his mind, to plunge 

 beneath, or soar above the level of life into the supernatural world ; 

 his conception was of the utmost expansion out of the sphere of 

 nature it was poetical in horrors it felt no sympathy with the 

 unaffected sweetness of woman, or with the grace and energy of man 

 uninfluenced by aught beyond the life they live in the flesh. The 

 simple sorrow feeding on the damask cheek, had no charm for an 

 imagination that revelled in the most appalling scenes of Dante and 

 of Milton. If a voluptuously formed woman was designed on his 

 canvass, it was to introduce a goblin knight hovering about, to 

 pursue to torment her. The beauty of her person was only valued 

 as it might increase the contrast of surrounding terrors ; he used it 

 as a light which served but to aggravate the depicted woe. Year 

 after year, the exhibition contained some new dream of poetical 

 night-mare. In spite of neglect and the sneers of those who were too 

 prejudiced to forgive his faults, and too dull to comprehend his 

 genius, he continued painting his wilful energetic fancies, enjoying 

 the mystification thrown around some of his subjects, which were 

 drawn from a source rather recondite to the English public. t( By 

 G< this will puzzle them," said he, as the following title to a picture 

 was penned for the catalogue ; " Sivrit, secretly married to Criem- 

 hild, surprised by Trony in his first interview with her, after his 

 victory over the Saxons. Das Nibelungen Lied." People wondered 

 who the deuce Trony could be, and not understanding the subject, 

 laughed at the picture. His productions might almost invariably be 

 recognized by their titles ; they stood out in the catalogue, as they 

 did on the academy walls. It was an act of supererogation, to affix 

 H. Fuseli, R. A. to them. In the council room, where the works 

 presented by the academicians on their election are deposited, and of 

 which a list is reprinted in each yearly catalogue, we find in juxta- 

 position with (< Venus and Cupid," (f Gipsey Girl," " Age and 

 Infancy," " Flowers," " Boy and Kitten," " A Coast Scene," " Cot- 

 tagers," " Children/' " Charity," " The Village Buffoon," " Boy and 

 Rabbit," " Design for a New House of Lords," " Boys digging for a 

 Rat," " THOR battering THE SERPENT OF MITGARD, in the boat of 

 HYMER THE GIANT!" This, it is almost needless to say, is 

 Fuseli's. 



The abundant fancy displayed in his fairy scene from the Mid- 

 summer Night's Dream elicited general admiration. The ground, the 

 herbs, the flowers, swarm with fantastic beings as light and lively as 

 grasshoppers in a field. Their long outstretched limbs are admirably 

 adapted for airy leaps they sport like insects in the sun, animated 

 by no other passion than a love of motion unconsciously propelled 

 into a thousand fantastic attitudes. Milton furnished his mind with 

 a gallery of subjects. One of the most poetical compositions I ever 

 saw is the Uriel and Satan. The devil " throws his steep flight into 

 many an airy wheel ; " the angel meditatively watches him. Some of 

 the Adam and Eve groups are executed with more of the hue of 

 nature about them than any other of Fuseli's works. The Departure from 



