Art Institute of Chicago

Odin in the Underworld

Henry Fuseli

Date

1770/72

Medium

Brush and gray wash and graphite, with touches of pen and brown ink and red chalk, on cream laid paper

Culture

England

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Poet and scholar Thomas Gray’s The Descent of Odin (published 1768), a loose translation of an Old Norse poem, inspired this strange image—an exercise in nearly pure wash devoid of line. Fuseli’s drawing depicts the Norse god Odin descending into the underworld to learn the fate of his beloved son Balder. The arms emerging from the ground belong to the prophetess with whom Odin consults. Above is a vision of the Valkyries mourning at Balder’s tomb. Fuseli’s image of Odin is a clever adaptation of Michelangelo’s God Dividing the Land and the Water , a fresco on the Sistine Chapel ceiling in Rome.

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