Rezia plonge dans la mer avec Huon

Rezia Plunges into the Sea with Huon depicts a scene from Wieland’s epic poem Oberon, one of several German literary sources that Fuseli drew on alongside Shakespeare and Milton. The dramatic rescue scene allowed Fuseli to combine his passion for literary subjects with the violence and physical extremity that characterize his most powerful compositions. Characteristic of the artist's mature approach, the work displays Michelangelesque muscular figures in extremis, supernatural and nightmare subjects, violent foreshortening, dark Gothic atmosphere, theatrical excess.

The plunging figures create a dynamic diagonal composition. Fuseli’s bold treatment of the water and the desperately intertwined bodies conveys the urgency of the rescue with characteristic intensity.