The Nightmare

[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 18^th 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.”