Monstrosity in European Art: A reflection on the role of Monstrosity in 19th century paintings

Titania and Bottom (1790)

          Titania and Bottom is a painting based off Shakespeare's “A Midsummer night’s dream” which captures the character Titania and Bottom amongst other fairies in a forest. The painting continues Fuseli’s supernatural and spectacular themes by tackling one of literature's most famous fairy tales. The painting is theatrical in nature and there is a lot to see all laid out facing the audience. It seems the the farther down one looks in the painting the more monstrous figures appear, with a collage of interesting persons appearing on the lower line of character; and one need look no further than Bottom at the center of the image to understand the themes of monstrosity that weave into Midsummer and the painting itself. This painting was one of the first in a long line of Victorian paintings of fairies, which begs the question of how our discussion of how monstrosity and spirits blends into the piece.
          In class we looked into Shakespeare’s themes of monstrosity in “The Tempest” and now looking at “a Midsummer Night’s Dream” I believe we can make some parallels. First off, the archetype of the Fairy is monstrous and othered throughout Shakespeare's work and the fairy can be seen to represent a kind of human with a different set of morals and values than society could normally impose. In addition to the literature, Fuseli here is clearly commenting on some of the physical monstrosity of the fairies. Bottom too is an interesting focal point, as is the only man but arguably the most monstrous of all the characters in the painting. Fuseli Is capturing the layers and types of monstrosity found in Shakespeares classic play, and It's then interesting to look at Titania and Bottom and see the blend of monstrosity and the large image it creates.
 

This page has paths:

Contents of this tag: