The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 12, 2024

Satan Starts from the Touch of Ithuriel's Spear

Satan Starts from the Touch of Ithuriel's Spear

1776
(Swiss, 1741–1825)
England, 18th century
pen and brown ink and brush and gray wash
Sheet: 30.9 x 42.5 cm (12 3/16 x 16 3/4 in.); Secondary Support: 31 x 42.7 cm (12 3/16 x 16 13/16 in.)
Dudley P. Allen Fund 1954.365
Catalogue raisonné: Schiff 483a
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

This drawing is one of three almost identical drawings depicting the same scene from Paradise Lost; the other sheets are in the collections of the National Gallery, Stockholm, and the British Museum, London.

Description

Henry Fuseli's lifelong interest in the work of the English poet John Milton (1608-1674) inspired many drawings that interpreted passages from Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost (1667). This early example illustrates the moment when the angels Ithuriel and Zephon discover Satan disguised as a toad in the bower where Adam and Eve are sleeping. Ithuriel forces Satan to reveal himself by prodding him with a spear. The lion in the background alludes to an earlier passage in the poem, when Satan takes on the shape of the beast in order to spy on the couple.
  • ?-?
    Dr. John Percy [1817-1889; Lugt 1504], London
    ?-?
    Sir James Knowles, London
    ?-?
    Eva Trüeb-Baumann, Chateau d'Hauterive, Switzerland
    ?-?
    (Dr. G. A. Gericke, Zurich)
    1954-
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Wartmann, Wilhelm. Johann Heinrich Füssli, 1741-1825: zur Zweihundertjahrfeier und Gedächtnisausstellung. Exh. Cat. Zürich: Kunsthaus Zürich, 1941. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 76, no. 240
    "Accessions of American and Canadian Museums." Art Quarterly 17 (Winter 1954): 412. Mentioned: p. 412.
    The World of Benjamin West. Exh. Cat. Allentown, PA: Allentown Art Museum, 1962. Mentioned: p. 76, no. 55
    Wartmann, Wilhelm. Johann Heinrich Füssli, 1741-1825. Zurich: Kunsthaus. 1969. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 74
    Schiff, Gert. Johann Heinrich Füssli 1741-1825: Text und Oeuvrekatalog. Zurich: Berichthaus, 1973. Mentioned: pp. 76, 110, 456, no. 483a
    Pressly, Nancy. The Fuseli Circle in Rome: Early Romantic Art of the 1770s. Exh. Cat. New Haven, CT: Yale Center for British Art, 1979. Mentioned: p. 40, under no. 41
    Bjurström, Per. Dürer to Delacroix: Great Master Drawings from Stockholm. Exh. Cat. Fort Worth, TX: Kimbell Art Museum, 1985. Mentioned: p. 84, no. 103
    Important Old Master Pictures. New York: Christie's: 1995. Mentioned: pp. 296-7, under no. N146
    Lemonedes, Heather. British Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Exh. Cat. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2013. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 30-31, 145, no. 5
    Moster-Hoos, Jutta, ed. Die Geister, die sie riefen...: Lust- und Angstphantasien von Horst Janssen und Johan Heinrich Füssli. München: Hirmer, 2015. Reproduced: p. 47, fig. 9; Mentioned: p. 48
  • British Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art . The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-May 26, 2013).
    Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).
    Directions in Drawing II: The Human Figure. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5, 1991-January 12, 1992).
    Rococo, Revolution, Restoration. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 11-September 24, 1989).
    Johann Heinrich Fussli, 1741-1825. Kunsthaus, Zurich (May 17 – July 6 1969).
    Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 11-September 10, 1963).
    The World of Benjamin West. Allentown Art Museum, PA (organizer) (May 1-July 31, 1962).
    The Drawings of Henry Fuseli. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 16-March 10, 1954).
    Fuseli. Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 16 - March 7, 1954).
    Johann Heinrich Füssli, 1741-1825: zur Zweihundertjahrfeier und Gedächtnisausstellung. Kunsthaus Zürich (August 17 - October 15, 1941).
  • {{cite web|title=Satan Starts from the Touch of Ithuriel's Spear|url=false|author=Henry Fuseli|year=1776|access-date=12 May 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1954.365