Mamillius conjuring up Sprites and Goblins for his Mother, Hermione (from William Shakespeare's 'The Winter's Tale', Act II sc. i)
Henry Fuseli (Zurich 1741 - London 1825)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1785 - 1786
Materials
Oil on canvas (circular)
Measurements
479 mm (18 ⅞ in) (Diameter)
Order this imageCollection
Hinton Ampner, Hampshire
NT 1530074.2
Summary
Oil painting on canvas (circular), Mamillius conjuring up Sprites and Goblins for his Mother, Hermione from William Shakespeare's 'The Winter's Tale' (Act II, sc. i) by Henry Fuseli (Zurich 1741 - London 1825), 1785-1786. Mamillius, held in leading-strings by his mother, Hermione, strains towards a vision of sprites and goblins in the rocks. In this tondo Fuseli has chosen to illustrate the opening of the first scene of Act Two of 'The Winter’s Tale', in which Queen Hermione, having got over her irritation with her son Mamillius, has the following exchange with him (the one that gives the play its name): Hermione: “What wisdom stirs amongst you? Come sir, now I am for you again. Pray you sit by us, and tell’s a tale.” Mamillius: “Merry or sad shall’t be?” Hermione: “As merry as you will.” Mamillius: “A sad tale’s best for winter. I have one of sprites and goblins.” Hermione: “Let’s have that, good sir. Come on, sit down; come on, and do your best to fright me with your sprites; you’re powerful at it.”
Provenance
Roland, Browse & Delbanco,1948; Leger Galleries, where it was purchased by Ralph Dutton, 8th Lord Sherborne (1898–1985) between 1948-54; and by whom bequeathed to the National Trust
Credit line
Hinton Ampner, The Ralph Dutton Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Henry Fuseli (Zurich 1741 - London 1825)
References
Fuseli pittore di Shakespeare: pittura e teatro 1775 - 1825 (F. Licht, S. Tosini Pizzetti and D. H. Weinglass eds.) (exh cat), Mamiano di Traversetolo, Fondazione Rocca, Milan, 7 September - 7 December, 1997 , 11 Fuseli: the Wild Swiss (ed. F. Lentzsch) (exh cat), Kunsthaus, Zurich, 14 October 2005 - 8 January 2006 Hogarth, Reynolds, Turner: British Painting and the Rise of Modernity (ed. Carolina Brook, Valter Curzi), Fondazione Roma Museo, Palazzo Sciarra, Rome,15 April - 20 July 2014, 41