Mamillius conjuring up Sprites and Goblins for his Mother, Hermione (from William Shakespeare's 'The Winter's Tale', Act II sc. i)

Fuseli's Mamillius Conjuring Sprites for his Mother Hermione (1785) from Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale exemplifies his approach to literary painting — selecting moments of supernatural suggestion and psychological intensity over clear narrative episodes. Mamillius, the young prince who dies of grief during the play, conjures frightening creatures to entertain and disturb; his mother Hermione, falsely accused by Leontes, listens in a state of troubled beauty. Fuseli transforms Shakespeare's domestic scene into a vision of dark imagination characteristic of the Romantic Sublime. The National Trust holds this work as an example of his literary Romanticism.

Fuseli's theatrical figures inhabit a shadowy, undefined space that forces attention onto their extreme poses and expressions. His characteristic exaggeration of limbs and gestures heightens the psychological tension. The sprite forms that Mamillius conjures are handled with eerie vagueness — more suggestion than form — increasing their menace.