Alien Explorations

Nightmare (1791) Henry Fuseli

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Nightmare (1791) Henry Fuseli


Loosely echoes the Henu Barque from The Papyrus of Ani once again.

What was going on, I don't know, it's just something coming at me with little to back it up.

It would be nice to just say this is what Fuseli did with the Henu Barque, but we can't so easily say that.

Oryx head becomes horsehead, but another point might be that the oryx horns have become the evil shadow on the curtain while bull horns have become the the horse's nose and with that, the fan of the Henu Barque becomes the crinkles in the curtains by the horse's head.

White pillow forms/ piles of sand become the stretched out woman. while the rudders become he arms and head.

The central dip in the barque becomes the gold material draped over the side..

The pillars and the kestrel head become the demon sitting on the woman.

The upper body of the crouching man becomes the table on the left, while his skirt becomes the space in the red material draped over the side on the left.

Once Fuseli got the original painting out, he was able to deviate from the Henu Barque configuration in further versions of it



Henu Barque from Papyrus of Ani
black and white image of the Henu Barque from the Papyrus of Ani 
(source: The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, The British Museum Press)



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