Faust 1828

In this lithograph, Eugène Delacroix plunges us into Goethe’s world, presenting Mephistopheles soaring over a sleeping city. His figure, winged and muscular, encapsulates the duality of good and evil, symbolized by one dark bat-like wing and one wing of a bird, reminiscent of ancient Greek depictions of hybrid creatures. Consider the recurring motif of wings, a symbol deeply embedded in our collective unconscious. From the divine messengers of antiquity to the fallen angels of Christian lore, wings signify transcendence but also the possibility of a fall. Delacroix’s Mephistopheles embodies this tension. One wing invokes the demonic, the other—a fractured, avian form—suggests a corruption of the celestial. It is the persistence and transformation of such potent symbols that reveal the enduring power of images, echoing through time and culture, constantly reshaped by our deepest fears and aspirations.