Odin in the Underworld

1770·Brush and gray wash and graphite, with touches of pen and brown ink and red chalk, on cream laid paper·58.6 × 44.4 cm (23 1/8 × 17 1/2 in.)

Poet and scholar Thomas Gray’s The Descent of Odin (published 1768), a loose translation of an Old Norse poem, inspired this strange image—an exercise in nearly pure wash devoid of line. Fuseli’s drawing depicts the Norse god Odin descending into the underworld to learn the fate of his beloved son Balder. The arms emerging from the ground belong to the prophetess with whom Odin consults. Above is a vision of the Valkyries mourning at Balder’s tomb. Fuseli’s image of Odin is a clever adaptation of Michelangelo’s God Dividing the Land and the Water, a fresco on the Sistine Chapel ceiling in Rome.

Catalogue

Year: 1770
Medium: Brush and gray wash and graphite, with touches of pen and brown ink and red chalk, on cream laid paper
Dimensions: 58.6 × 44.4 cm (23 1/8 × 17 1/2 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Henry Fuseli

Artist

Henry Fuseli

Painting

Henry Fuseli was a Swiss painter, draughtsman, and writer on art who spent much of his career in Britain.

Zurich, Switzerland

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