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 surpassed
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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