Fuseli's Bottom and the Barberini Faun

Abstract

THE character Bottom in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream has been depicted in art many times1 and one of the most striking is in Henry Fuseli's painting Titania's Awakening.2 In this painting, the posture and facial features of the character Bottom bear a striking likeness to the Ancient Greek marble statue known as The Barberini Faun.3 In the Midsummer Night's Dream painting cycle4 by Fuseli the use of Ancient Greek and Roman mythology is evident. By setting the paintings in this type of dark and sublime style the paintings suggest an interpretation of the play which leads down into the darkest abyss of mythological sex and death. The most extensive catalogue of Fuseli's paintings is Gert Schiff's5 but this does not mention the Barberini Faun as a possible source for Fuseli's painting. The statue would have been known to both Fuseli and others because of its reputation. When it was discovered in the early seventeenth century it ‘won universal acceptance as a statue of the highest excellence’.6 It was also reproduced in catalogues of Greek and Roman art7 and later in biscuit porcelain in the later half of the eighteenth century which made it known throughout the European audience. In his most recent book Painting Shakespeare Stuart Sillars8 draws attention towards another Greek statue The Farnese Bull9 and links the story of Dirce and Amphion to that of Titania and Oberon. If we are to look at the interpretation presented by Fuseli, the character Bottom is darkened heavily by linking him to the Faun and the mythical environment surrounding him. By comparing these characters we might see that the similarities between the two are strongly sexual and intoxicated. The mythical Faun is not only linked with the nymphs and the female followers of Dionysus, but also the state of being part man and part animal.10 Both these characters show excessive sexual force. This has been noted by several scholars in the past and pointed to as most distinctive in regards to Puck.11 In some monographs from the mid sixteenth century,12 the character Puck was seen as a kind of devil of the wilderness or just another demon, in the comparison made by Fuseli it is not just Puck who is a demon figure of the wilderness but Bottom. The Faun in Greek mythology was a dark and lustful character who boasted of being the only creature to have slept with all of Dionysus’ female entourage. The sexuality implied by Fuseli, or rather in the Barberini Faun, does fit with the characterization of Bottom in the play. While he is in the forest with Titania he immediately succumbs to her sexual dominion over him and freely admits himself to the company of Titania's fairy court.