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| FUSELI |
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Henry Fuseli
"What am I? Fay? Faery or DAIMON?"
"The only man that e'er I knew
Who did not make me almost spew
Was Fuseli: he was both Turk and Jew-
And so, dear Christian friends, how do you do?"- William Blake
"The remarker upon the writings and conduct of Rousseau is one of those rarae aves whom it is difficult to define; of a character which it is difficult to fix.
He is evidently a gentleman, a scholar, a philosopher, a genius, and a man of wit; though by some of his readers his pretensions to any of these titles will be called in question; and by others his character in a summary way will be sunk to that of a downright skeptic (perhaps atheist) and libertine.
For, say the first, will a gentleman labour to disturb the public tranquillity? A scholar revile the schools? A philosopher damn all sects? A genius despise all restraints? And a man of wit blaspheme sacred things?
-Nevertheless he may be-
Here the candid and benevolent will pause a while; and regret that the gentleman in private life should affront the public in a body, whom as individuals he would be far from offending; that the scholar should depart from his first principles, and become ungrateful to his teachers; that the philosopher should only wear a gown to cover his lewdness; that true genius should o'erstep the modesty of nature and the decorum of habit; and that the sparkling wit, not contented with such flesh as the market affords in the public stews, should profane by wishing to wanton with the Word made flesh!
- Nevertheless he may be-
What? cry the zealots! Can he be less a wretch than he appears to be? Can sophistry itself find any pretext in his behalf? Is he not a blasphemer of God and a reviler of men? Order with him is chaos, and chaos order!- Heaven! Church! Bishops! Seminaries! Sciences! All fall before him!- Confusion on his head! Away with him!- Pincers, fire and faggot were made for such miscreants!"- Fuseli reviewing his own anonymous book on Rousseau
"One may say of Fuseli, as of every mannerist of genius, that he parodies himself."- Goethe on Fuseli
"By simplicity, we mean, what flows from the heart; and there is no instance of any translator known to us, who has so entirely transfused the primitive spirit of an ancient work into a modern language; whose own individual habits and bent, if we may be allowed the expression, seem to be so totally annihilated, or to have coalesced so imperceptibly with his model."
"What then remains, but to transpose yourself into your subject?"
"If you mean to reign dictator over the arts of your own times, assail not your rivals with the blustering tone of condemnation and rigid censure; -sap with conditional or lamenting praise-confine them to unfashionable excellence- exclude them from the avenues of fame."
"Neither Poetry nor Painting spring from the necessities of society, or furnish necessaries to life; offsprings of fancy, leisure, and lofty contemplation, organs of religion and government, ornaments of society, and too often mere charms of the senses and instruments of luxury, they derive their excellence from their novelty, degree, and polish."
"An adopted idea or figure in a work of genius is a foil or a companion of the rest; but an idea of genius borrowed by mediocrity, tears all associate shreds, it is the giant's thumb by which the pigmy offered the measure of his own littleness."
"When on the day of judgement each body shall claim its original limbs, what will remain in this picture?"
"A good mechanic, a trusty labourer, an honest tradesman, are beings more important, of greater use to society, and better supporters of the state, than an artist or a poet of mediocrity. When I therefore say that it is the duty of the Academy to deter rather than to delude, I am not afraid of having advanced a paradox hostile to the progress of real Art."
"Nothing that ennobles a man was ever produced by gold...The effect of honours and rewards has been insisted on as a necessary incentive to artists: they ought indeed to be, they sometimes are, the result of superior powers; but accidental or partial honours cannot create Genius, nor private profusion supply public neglect. No genuine work of Art ever was or ever can be produced, but for its own sake; if the artist does not conceive to please himself, he never will finish to please the world."
"Next to him who can finish, is he who has hid from you that he cannot."
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