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Nov 3, 2017 · Most people today who have heard that ‘the Nightmare’ is an actual being in European folklore and not just a certain type of dream-state, associate the being with horses. A mare is indeed a horse—but this interpretation is not correct. The mare of ‘the nightmare’ is a demon; and the word for horse and the word for nightmare derive from a different root.
The Nightmare is a 1781 oil painting by Swiss artist Henry Fuseli. It shows a woman in deep sleep with her arms thrown below her, and with a demonic and ape-like incubus crouched on her chest. The painting's dreamlike and haunting erotic evocation of infatuation and obsession was a huge popular success.
The Nightmare, by Henry Fuseli, 1781. A mare (Old English: mære, Old Dutch: mare; Old Norse, Old High German and Swedish: mara; Proto-Slavic *mara) is a malicious entity in Germanic and Slavic folklore that walks on people's chests while they sleep, bringing on nightmares. [1]
It is this demon who is causing the nightmare, rather than the horse (or “night-mare”) that peers from behind the drapes. In contemporary folklore, horses were often linked with nocturnal visitations. They were ridden by night-hags and witches, and “hagridden” was used as a term for someone troubled by nightmares.
- Iain Zaczek
- Artist Abstract: Who Was Henry Fuseli?
- The Nightmare (1781) by Henry Fuseli in Context
- Formal Analysis: A Brief Compositional Overview
- What Does The Nightmare Painting symbolize exactly?
- It Is Sublimely Beautiful and Terrifying
- Frequently Asked Questions
Henry Fuseli’s original name was Johann Heinrich Füssli, and he was born in 1741 on February 7 in Zürich, Switzerland. He died in April 1825. Fuseli was exposed to art from an early age because his father, Johann Caspar Füssli, was an artist and writer. Fuseli attended Caroline College of Zürich at his father’s request, who wanted him to be a Minis...
Henry Fuseli was a prominent artist during the 18thcentury, he painted scenes steeped in supernatural motifs, depicting characters we find from age-old literature and mythology. His work has been regarded as Gothic, grotesque, and some say he is “godfather” to Surrealism. Fantastical and fearful, below we will provide The Nightmare analysis, starti...
Below we look at The Nightmare painting by Henry Fuseli in more detail. This painting made its debut exhibit in 1782 at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. John Knowles was known as one of the early biographers of Henry Fuseli and has been widely quoted from his book The Life and Writings of Henry Fuseli(1831). The Nightmare (1781) by Henry Fuseli...
We have come to the part that you are probably dying to know: what does it all mean? We need to look at various folklore, legendary, and mythological sources, where our two creature characters come from. The Nightmare painting, as the title suggests, depicts a scene relevant to the dreaming state, and more specifically someone having a nightmare; t...
In The Nightmareanalysis above, Henry Fuseli depicts a scene that is wholly open to interpretation, and we are immediately met with the gaze of a nightmarish figure as well as a title that reinforces the fact. If we go beyond the nightmarish scene, we find a whole world that Fuseli fills from his own artistic and personal interests and explorations...
Who Painted The Nightmare?
The Nightmare (1781) was painted by the Swiss artist, Henry Fuseli.
How Much Is The Nightmare By Henry Fuseli Worth?
Apparently, Henry Fuseli sold The Nightmarepainting for twenty guineas. It is now displayed at the Detroit Institute of Arts in the United States and is approximately worth $3 to $4 million.
- Alicia du Plessis
- ( Author And Art History Expert )
According to Fuseli’s friend and biographer John Knowles, who saw the first drawing Fuseli made for the composition in 1781, the horse was not present in the drawing but added to the painting later. Although it is tempting to understand the painting’s title as a punning reference to the horse, the word “nightmare” does not refer to horses.
People also ask
Is the Nightmare a horse?
What happens when a horse is taken by a nightmare?
Is a mare a horse?
Is a mare a demon?
Why is it called a nightmare?
What is a nightmare by Henry Fuseli?
The demonic horse leering through the parted curtains seems to provide a visual pun on the word ‘nightmare’. However, the etymology of the term has no actual link to horses, with ‘mare’ deriving from ‘mara’.
