[This
was an essay I had to write for an English class not to long ago about a piece
of classic art and the emotions it evokes... naturally me being me I chose
something near and dear to me... Nightmares... I figure what better thing to
right about in a horror blog than the cause of most terror than those at
night... enjoy kiddies]
“Sleep, those little slices of death — how I
loathe them.” ― Edgar Allan Poe
“I've got a picture in my head of
what you look like when you're sleepin'
This skin sinks into the instincts of a demon” – Atmosphere - The Snare
 |
Nightmare (1800) Nicolai Abildgaard
after Henry Fuseli's The Nightmare (1781) |
 |
| Henry Fuseli's The Nightmare (1781) |
I chose the picture The
Nightmare by Danish artist Nicolai
Abildgaard painted in 1800. The picture itself is a variation of a 1781 oil
painting by Henry Fuseli. I decided on this particular piece because I feel the
variation makes for a scarier picture with a clearer message. I consider art to
be a powerful tool that is at the disposal of its creator and it can be molded,
shaped or made to convey a particular emotion; whether it is the serenity of
nature, the beauty of life and romance or in this case, fear and horror.
Though some people do not enjoy getting scared,
some people thrive on their nightmares and let it inspire their own art.
Authors write books and filmmakers shoot movies based straight from their own
hellish dreams, others show us their vision in one picture. I highly respect
any artist who can create fear with their work, especially in the case of
Abildgaard’s rendition of The Nightmare due to its timeless nature I
feel this piece evokes some universal raw emotions regarding the darker side of
life at its most susceptible and vulnerable.
Abildgaard’s variation of the painting has more
striking imagery to it than Fuseli’s original interpretation. The picture
itself remains true to the original and retains the same chilling tone if not
more effectively. Both pictures have an incubus or demonoid type of creature
sat perched upon a sleeping woman’s form. These variations make for a more
thought-provoking and terror inspiring vision than its predecessor.
The nightmare creature itself has a more
terrifying look to it in Abildgaard’s vision, looking less like a fat goblin or
an ugly cherub and more like a squat demon with its glowing red eyes and more
pronounced, pointed bat-like ears. The nightmare’s pose suggests it is
patiently waiting for the right moment to infiltrate and terrorize this
unsuspecting woman’s peaceful slumber and ensuing dreams. The seeming smirk on
the imp’s face suggests it will soon take fiendish pleasure in doing its
job. An individual is at their most vulnerable during periods of sleep,
the nudity of the woman only makes her seem all the more vulnerable in this
version as opposed to Fuseli’s fully-clothed original.
It is also
because of this slight variation that it suggests more sexual undertones. The
fact that the both the woman and the masculine figure next to her both lie in
the nude suggest that perhaps a moment of copulative intimacy was recently
shared between them; that they both drifted off to sleep in a state of bliss
completely unaware of the terror that would shortly ensue thereafter. This part
of Abildgaard’s rendition alone raises some possible questions about the
morality of the overt sexuality of the picture. What is the relationship
between the two people? Is this a possible tryst between lovers? Does this
nightmare represent a potential repercussion from an adulterous or pre- or
extramarital relationship? Is this creature a representation of everyone’s
worst fear of the invasion of their slumber or perhaps even death?
The duality of the colors might evoke the age old
good versus evil mythology. The contrast of colors between the greenish evil
tone of the nightmare creature representing evil and the alabaster white woman
representing purity, innocence or good. The ears also cast a shadow that look
strikingly similar to horns. One could also assume the creature represents
Death itself coming to claim a life of an unsuspecting person and waits to do
it in her sleep.
The culture surrounding the image in the year 1800
might suggest a time when there was still a fear regarding sleep and
potentially not waking up from a nightmare due to a still semi-superstitious
mode of thinking, but more than likely due to something health or
medically related gone undiagnosed. A nightmare is a good example of your
unconscious fears coming to the conscious by way of ones dreams. One may not be
consciously aware of their fears and may spend their waking moments, in fact,
refuting fear and exuding strength; but a nightmare can bring any unrealized
fears to the forefront of one’s mind. Though dreams and nightmares may vary
from person to person this picture is a depiction of the potential terrors of
one’s dreams that anyone can associate with.
The contrast between the grotesque demon and the
beautiful woman is intended to be both scary and provocative simultaneously. A
horrible nightmare is also a universal concept that anyone can relate to.
Almost everyone regardless of age, culture, gender or any such variable can say
that they have had at least one nightmare in their lifetime. In his book The
Hagakure (an ancient Japanese manual on the art of samurai – or
warrior class) author Yamamoto Tsunetomo relates in this early 18th
century text:
“It is a good viewpoint to see the world as
a dream. When you have something like a nightmare, you will wake up and tell
yourself that it was only a dream. It is said that the world we live in is not
a bit different from this.”
Even I have endured my
own fair share of nightmares in my life. Nightmares have haunted me throughout
my own life for various reasons from test anxiety to a scary movie. One such
nightmare in particular I remember from childhood while on vacation with my
family, a creature not too dissimilar from this one was crawling up the side of
the hotel we were staying in, when I looked over the balcony and saw it, it
looked at me with its red eyes and sharp teeth and hissed at me and began its
ascent toward me even quicker than its previous slow crawl. I awoke in fear and
ran out to the porch where my parents were relaxing to look over the balcony
and see only the ground below, and thankfully no nightmare creature. This
picture represents to me childhood fears or something akin to the boogie man,
the lurking monster under the bed or in the closet. Fear, despite its overall
bad reputation, can be and is a normal human emotion, but as Franklin Delano
Roosevelt put it best “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”
