Prince Arthur's Vision (Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I, ix, 13)
Attracted to subjects that touch on the unconscious, Fuseli wrote, "One of the most unexplored regions of art are [sic] dreams" (Aphorism no. 231), and here represents Prince Arthur, from Edmund Spenser's "The Faerie Queen." The sleeping prince is visited by a vision of Gloriana, a poetic evocation of Elizabeth I, whom the artist imagines dressed in fashionable late-18th century garb and attended by spirits. The engraver Tomkins based the print on a painting Fuseli made for Macklin's Poets Gallery around 1788, now at the Kunstmuseum, Basel.
Artwork Details
- Title: Prince Arthur's Vision (Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I, ix, 13)
- Engraver: Peltro William Tomkins (British, London 1759–1840 London)
- Artist: After Henry Fuseli (Swiss, Zürich 1741–1825 London)
- Publisher: Thomas Macklin (British, 1752/53–1800 London)
- Published in: London
- Date: April 4, 1788
- Medium: Stipple engraving and etching; published state
- Dimensions: Plate: 21 1/16 × 15 7/8 in. (53.5 × 40.3 cm)
Sheet: 23 1/4 × 18 7/16 in. (59 × 46.8 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Gertrude and Thomas Jefferson Mumford Collection, Gift of Dorothy Quick Mayer, 1942
- Object Number: 42.119.356
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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