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

Johann Heinrich Fussli

1741 - 1825

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

c. 1783
Oil on canvas 276 x 317 cm
P.1983-1

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While a native of Zurich, Fussli worked in London. After several years' study of Michelangelo in Italy, he developed an imaginative and grotesque painting style taking subjects from various literary works. This work draws its inspiration from Dryden's poem "Theodore and Honoria", an adaptation of a story from Boccacio's Decameron. The young man from Ravenna, Theodore, meets the specter of the suicide Guido Cavalcanti who sets ferocious dogs to attack his naked, fleeing lover.