Art And History Assignment Reports

Running head: ART AND HISTORY
ART AND HISTORY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Authors note

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ART AND HISTORY
The Romanticism or the Romantic movement has risen the belief that artistic
manifestation contributes to the ethical evolution of society. Almost after two centuries of
supremacy of the scientific consideration of reality. Finally the art has started to be proclaimed as
subsequent sources regarding spiritual insight, which was necessary for society’s welfare. The
romantic artists are now seen as the creator of amalgamating symbols in a fragmented
edification. “Beauty alone can confer upon him a social character. Taste alone brings harmony
into society, because it fosters harmony in the individual” (Schiller, 1795/1967, p. 215). In the
field of art history, originality became the centrally valuable notion, which gave rise to the
concept of romanticism (Sigaki, Perc and Ribeiro, 2018). This movement has brought an end to
the eighteenth century movement of neoclassicism (Furst, 2017). Artists were started to be
considered as the persons whose power of imagination was an aptitude of instantaneous insight,
which superior to science, thus art was a traditionally relevant arrangement of knowledge
(Hemingway, 2017).
Born in Swiss, the painter named Henry Fuseli from the year 1741 to until the year 1825,
has been considered as one of the inordinate originators of the Romantic Movement (Gill, 2016).
In London, at the Royal Academy he won his very first acclaim in the year 1781, when he
exhibited his famous work of Nightmare. Most of Henry’s works were based on literal
elucidations of literary passages selected for their deep psychological level, intense horror,
extreme mystery and intrigue. Similarly, the painting “Nightmare” comprises of chiaroscuro
lighting, overt sexuality and dramatic intensity was atypical of Henry’s oeuvre, however, it was
centred on imagination and folklore rather than any particular literary source. As per the
reference of his friend John Knowles, Fuseli’s favourite ‘foreign poet’ is Dante and throughout
his life, he sought inspiration from the divine comedies of Dante, especially the Inferno.

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ART AND HISTORY
Knowles states that, “Dante’s imagery made the deepest impression on Fuseli’s mind”, this
statement has been supported by many visual interpretations. Due to Fuseli’s religious and
academic training along with his biographical background and his contradictory and complex
view of morality shows his extreme contribution over the field of art history.
One of the most recognised and popular work of Henry Fuseli is his painting named “The
Nightmare”. This painting falls under the category of macabre and strange piece of art, which
depicts an enchanted woman, swathed across a divan and a small hairy incubus is sitting on top
of her body, who is menacingly staring at the viewers, also a black and mysterious mare white
flaring nostrils and white eyes is appearing through the red lush curtains behind the incubus. The
connection between the incubus and the mare with the woman remnants suggestive and not
overtly expressed, that heightens the petrifying possibilities. Fuseli’s amalgamation of sexuality,
horror and death indemnifies the pictures disrepute as an example of Gothic terror (Davison,
2016).