It has judiciously been pointed out that "pictures from Shakespeare account[ed] for about one fifth -some 2 300!- of the total number of literary paintings recorded between 1760 and 1900" (R. Altick). As a matter of fact, the renewed interest in nineteenth century British art in the last decades made it easier to identify and see reproductions of the many paintings based on Shakespeare's plays. These "history paintings", as they were called, reveal how deeply painters, actors, directors and critics influenced one another, and how interdependent they were in their critical interpretations, depictions and productions of Shakespeare's masterpieces. In the nineteenth century, the relationship between literature and the graphic arts was much closer and the definition of "literary" criticism was broader than it is now. Some painters were even called "poets painters", in reference to the concept of "ut pictura poesis" and to the traditional analogy between painters and poets, "identifying the painter with the players, as artists equally capable of realizing the narrative import and the dramatic potential of the poet's imagined picture" (M. Meisel).
[...] Hecate is centred on one of the witches, and sets some natural and supernatural animals as well. The Three Witches presents a mirror structure, due to the parallelism of the Three Sisters' arms, the convergence of their glassy gaze, their complexion and the plain colour of their clothes, contrasting with the sombre and mysterious background. The main impression is that of duplication, and even tripling, as if the witches were replicating ad infinitum. The theme of the supernatural and of the nightmare is again prevailing here, since the painting obviously deals with witchcraft. [...]
[...] It is worth mentioning that the Cardinal's death was a popular subject for painters: Sir Joshua Reynolds, for instance, illustrated the same scene for the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery, and even Nicolas Poussin was inspired by that very passage. Füseli introduces agitated figures in a very fluid composition, but there is a clear allusion to an earlier work, especially the way of gathering the figures around a central character, along with the arm pointed upward, paying homage to a drawing by Poussin, whom Füseli admired a lot. [...]
[...] Titania, Oberon, Puck and their band of fairies obey the commands of their King and Queen: Oberon: Through the house give gathering light, By the dead and drowsy fire: Every elf and fairy sprite Hop as light as bird from brier; And this ditty, after me, Sing, and dance it trippingly. Titania: First, rehearse your song by rote To each word a warbling note: Hand in hand, with fairy grace, Will we sing, and bless this place. The fairies dancing are known as Cobweb, Mustardseed, Peaseblossom and Moth; Puck faces the onlookers, and Titania and Oberon, for their part, stand on the left side of the picture. [...]
[...] As far as the symbolic of such a painting is concerned, it may stand for the victory of youth over age, of the senses over reason and, in terms of the imagery established by the play itself, the triumph of night over day, the forest of Oberon over the court of Theseus, the world of love and dreams over the rational, homespun world of Athens. In this single highly allegorical image, as well as in the original -Titania and Bottom see below-, Füseli encapsulates the polarity of much of the imagery of A Midsummer Night's Dream. [...]
[...] William Blake, The Dance of Albion (1794) This picture is also known as Glad Day or Jocund Day, because Blake's biographer, Alexander Gilcrest, alleged that it illustrated a passage from Act III, scene 5 of Romeo and Juliet, when Romeo prepares to leave at dawn, after their wedding-night, and says: Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops. Whatever the original inspiration for the picture, sometime after 1800, Blake turned it into a line engraving, added a few details moth and a caterpillar fleeing as the sun rises-, and appended several lines of poetry: Albion rose from where he labour'd at the Mill with Slaves: Giving himself for the Nations he danc'd the dance of Eternal Death. [...]
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