Sat Upon my Heart, an Incubus
How a nightmare of the Gothic imagination prefigured Surrealism and the art of horror…
Henry Fuseli once said, “one of the most unexplored regions of art are dreams." His haunting painting of 1781 allows us to voyeuristically view a sleeping woman, contorted by her dreams, whilst visualising those private visions. She’s draped across a dishevelled bed. Sitting on her chest is a goblin or incubus, and the head of ghostly horse with blank ‘zombie’ eyes enters, frame left. He titled this image, now his most famous work, The Nightmare.
The word ‘nightmare’ is derived from Viking folklore where ‘mara’ spirits bring bad dreams in the night and sit on the chests of the dreamers. This ‘night mara’ was probably confused with a ‘night mare’ and here Fuseli explores the linguistic mix-up, personifying both versions.
Misunderstood in its day, this represents the first time that the subconscious world of dreams is used as a direct inspiration for visual art — preceding the Surrealists by nearly two centuries. The only precedents could be paintings showing the religious visions of saints and works by Hieronymus Bosch.
Fuseli’s distinctive dark Romantic style is well showcased here and in his later variations of the theme. The Romantic movement itself was to come about as a…
