Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00010991Satan Starts from the Touch of Ithuriel's Spear
by Henry Fuseli
About the Artwork
Henry Fuseli's lifelong interest in the work of the English poet John Milton (1608-1674) inspired many drawings that interpreted passages from Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost (1667). This early example illustrates the moment when the angels Ithuriel and Zephon discover Satan disguised as a toad in the bower where Adam and Eve are sleeping. Ithuriel forces Satan to reveal himself by prodding him with a spear. The lion in the background alludes to an earlier passage in the poem, when Satan takes on the shape of the beast in order to spy on the couple.
Inscriptions
inscribed, at lower center, in brown ink: Roma Oct. 76; at lower left, in brown ink: 17
Provenance
?-?: Dr. John Percy [1817-1889; Lugt 1504], London ?-?: Sir James Knowles, London ?-?: Eva Trüeb-Baumann, Chateau d'Hauterive, Switzerland ?-?: (Dr. G. A. Gericke, Zurich) 1954-: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
The Drawings of Henry Fuseli. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 16-March 10, 1954). The World of Benjamin West. Allentown Art Museum, PA (organizer) (May 1-July 31, 1962). Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 11-September 10, 1963). Rococo, Revolution, Restoration. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 11-September 24, 1989). Directions in Drawing II: The Human Figure. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5, 1991-January 12, 1992). Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002). British Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art . The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 10-May 26, 2013).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Henry Fuseli (Swiss, 1741–1825)
- Date
- 1776
- Medium
- pen and brown ink and brush and gray wash
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 30.9 x 42.5 cm (12 3/16 x 16 3/4 in.); Secondary Support: 31 x 42.7 cm (12 3/16 x 16 13/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Dudley P. Allen Fund
- Accession no.
- 1954.365
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Public collection via the Art Institute of Chicago
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Open-access museum record · AT-00010991
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