Shakespeare: Macbeth, Act I, Scene III

Drawn to the theme of man's confrontation with his destiny, Fuseli made several illustrations of scenes in Macbeth while living in Rome between 1770-78. To eighteenth- century sensibilities, Macbeth's encounters with the witches when as an individual he is forced to confront his tragic destiny, was the most Sublime of subjects. Fuseli refrains from depicting them as grotesques, unlike Salvator Rosa or Runciman. Instead he relies on dramatic gesture, movement and lighting effects to convey a sense of the supernatural. (Monsters and Maidens, 2004)

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