Abildgaard, Füssli and the first Shakespeare paintings outside Britain

• Autores: Patrick Kragelund
• Localización: Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, ISSN 0044-2992, Vol. 73, Nº. 2, 2010, págs. 237-254
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • A study of Danish painter Nicolai Abildgaard's illustrations of William Shakespeare's plays. This study provides a brief outline of Abildgaard's artistic and literary background before examining works on Shakespeare created approximately from his 1772–77 stay in Rome—where he met Johann Heinrich Füssli, the other first Continental painter to illustrate Shakespeare—until the mid 1780s: his drawing illustrating the Dream of Queen Catherine from Henry VIII, which confirms the initial overpowering influence of Füssli's style and imagery; his painting of the so-called Closet Scene in Hamlet, which reflects aspects of Füssli's work that Abildgaard had seen and admired; and his series of three episodes depicting the king's dream in Richard III, where the emphasis is on the links to the sublime that gave Shakespeare his unique status in Enlightenment aesthetics.