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Nightmare

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Abildgaard's Nightmare shows two young ladies in the nude lying on a bed. Outside the moon is shining on a dark blue sky at night. One lady is on the side showing us her back in what resembles a deep sleep with her hands tucked in under her head. The other, however, is twisting and turning. She is ridden by the mare. Nightmare is inspired by Johann Henry Fuseli’s painting Nachtmahr from 1781. It was shown at the Royal Academy in London in 1782 and was quickly reproduced and distributed across Europe in both authorised and unauthorised versions. Thus, Fuseli’s Nachtmar was accessible and soon became one of mass culture's most popular images and the standard for a representation of a bad dream. Both the Fuseli and the Abildgaard version is inspired by northern European folk religion where it was said that a bad dream was caused by a supernatural, and often female, creature: the mare. Abildgaard worked during the Enlightenment where reason and rationality were predominant values. He was among the first teachers at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, founded in 1754. Here, historic and mythological subject matters were preferred, preferably in the controlled Neoclassical style. This was a style Abildgaard both mastered and challenged. Already in his first masterpiece, The Wounded Philoctetes from 1775, today at the National Gallery of Denmark, he went beyond classical ideals of balance and harmony. Accordingly, Sorø Kunstmusem's Nightmare is a seminal piece both in subject matter and in its style. It is a lot more mythical, erotic and occult than the usual calm and collected Neoclassical style. Nightmare illustrates the beginning of a move towards an expression reminiscent of the Romantic era.
Title: Nightmare
Description:
Abildgaard's Nightmare shows two young ladies in the nude lying on a bed.
Outside the moon is shining on a dark blue sky at night.
One lady is on the side showing us her back in what resembles a deep sleep with her hands tucked in under her head.
The other, however, is twisting and turning.
She is ridden by the mare.
Nightmare is inspired by Johann Henry Fuseli’s painting Nachtmahr from 1781.
It was shown at the Royal Academy in London in 1782 and was quickly reproduced and distributed across Europe in both authorised and unauthorised versions.
Thus, Fuseli’s Nachtmar was accessible and soon became one of mass culture's most popular images and the standard for a representation of a bad dream.
Both the Fuseli and the Abildgaard version is inspired by northern European folk religion where it was said that a bad dream was caused by a supernatural, and often female, creature: the mare.
Abildgaard worked during the Enlightenment where reason and rationality were predominant values.
He was among the first teachers at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, founded in 1754.
Here, historic and mythological subject matters were preferred, preferably in the controlled Neoclassical style.
This was a style Abildgaard both mastered and challenged.
Already in his first masterpiece, The Wounded Philoctetes from 1775, today at the National Gallery of Denmark, he went beyond classical ideals of balance and harmony.
Accordingly, Sorø Kunstmusem's Nightmare is a seminal piece both in subject matter and in its style.
It is a lot more mythical, erotic and occult than the usual calm and collected Neoclassical style.
Nightmare illustrates the beginning of a move towards an expression reminiscent of the Romantic era.

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