Theodore Meets in the Wood the Spectre of His Ancestor Guido Cavalcanti

Painted two years after the famous The Nightmare, this work can be considered one of the greatest of his early works. Füssli frequently quoted from the works of such British authors as Shakespeare, and this work draws its inspiration from Dryden's poem Theodore and Honoria, an adaptation of the "Story of Nastagio degli Onesti" from Boccacio's Decameron. The scene from Theodore and Honoria, shown here, recounts the story of Theodore, a young man from Ravenna, who, spurned by a cool reception from his beloved Honoria, sets out to walk through the forests on the edge of Ravenna. There he meets the specter of the suicide Guido Cavalcanti, who had also been coolly received by his lover. Guido sets ferocious dogs to attack his naked, fleeing lover. Here Füssli turns to the story by Boccacio that was the basis for Dryden's poem, creating a particularly striking image through Dryden's heightened drama and the use of solid figural types that were based on his study of antique sculpture. This work was created under a commission from the third Earl of Orford, George Walpole, for the decoration of his Norfolk estate, Horton Hall. It descended through the generations of the family, and was kept at Horton Hall until recent years. (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no.57)