Art Institute of Chicago

The Discovery (recto), Two Sketches of Standing Male Figures (verso)

Henry Fuseli

Date

1767/69

Medium

Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash, over graphite with traces of opaque brown paint (recto), graphite (verso), on cream laid paper, tipped onto ivory laid paper

Culture

Switzerland

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

This powerful drawing—a bravura exercise in virtuoso line and tonal washes—illustrates a story from Swiss theologian Ludwig Lavater’s book De Spectris (“On Ghosts”), published in 1569. It describes a priest who, dressed in a sheet, haunts his wealthy niece who is living in his house, in an attempt to rape her and cheat her of her fortune. Terrified, the niece enlists the aid of a friend who exposes the repentant priest. The curious badminton match visible in the background—not in the story, but added by Fuseli as a critical commentary—is a reference to a proverb composed in Latin by the Dutch poet Jacob Cats (1577–1660): Amor ut pila vices exiget , “Love, like a ball, demands reciprocation.”

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