By Elsa Olsson/Fevernest, 2019

FUSELI, John Henry Swiss painter (b. 1741, Zürich, d. 1825, London) Romanticism The Nightmare 1790-91 Oil on canvas, 77 x 64 cm Goethe-Museum, Frankfurt

Fuseli did a total of four variations on The Nightmare, probably his best-known theme. The example in Frankfurt is the second variation. Though the motif was not inspired by any specific literary model, it would be unthinkable without a knowledge of ghost stories, especially English ones. The figure of the woman lying asleep or unconscious is extremely elongated and distorted, not because Fuseli could do no better, but in order to visualize the horrible oppressiveness of the gnome crouched on the woman’s breast, a nightmare and incarnation of unconscious terrors. In the gap between the curtains in the background appears the ghostly head of a blind horse, which anticipates the demoniac aspect given this animal especially in later French Romanticism.

Carl Gustav Jung, Man and his Symbols First published 1964

Abraxas by ikosidio

Pleiades M45

Credit: Rios Melillo

The Burney Relief ( also known as the Queen of the Night relief ). A terracotta plaque from the Old-Babylonian period, dated between 19th-18th century BCE.

J. van de Velde II, A witch at her cauldron surrounded by beasts, Wellcome Collection, 1626

Satanic ceremonial dagger with devil figure, 19th century, bronze.