Theodore Meets in the Wood the Specter of His Ancestor Guido Cavalcanti, Chasing with Mastiffs His Former Disdainful Mistress 1783

Henry Fuseli made this drawing with pen and gray ink over graphite around the late 18th century. Fuseli was a Swiss-born artist who spent most of his career in Britain, where he played a significant role in the Romantic movement. This drawing illustrates a scene from Boccaccio's *Decameron*. It depicts a supernatural event, reflecting the Romantic interest in the irrational and the sublime. Fuseli's work often drew inspiration from literature, exploring themes of love, death, and the supernatural, very much in keeping with the literary tastes of the time. The late 1700s marked a period of social and political upheaval, including the French Revolution. Fuseli's art, with its emphasis on emotion and drama, challenged the rationalism of the Enlightenment. A historian might look into Fuseli's connections with literary circles and political movements to better understand how his art reflects the tumultuous times in which he lived. His art is contingent on these social and institutional contexts.