Lycidas

Lycidas from 1795 depicts the pastoral elegy by John Milton, whose poetry was one of Fuseli’s primary literary sources alongside Shakespeare. Fuseli’s illustrations of Paradise Lost and other Miltonic subjects were among his most significant contributions to British Romantic art, establishing a visual tradition for interpreting Milton’s verse. 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.

Fuseli interprets the pastoral elegy with the dramatic intensity he brought to all literary subjects. His characteristic approach transforms Milton’s text into a visual experience of emotional power.