Satan Defying the Powers of Heaven

Henry Fuseli

National Gallery of Art

From below, we look up at a nude, muscular man striding from one dark gray boulder to another against a mist-gray background in this vertical drawing. The man’s left knee, to our right, is bent as he leans onto that leg. His other leg is stretched behind him so the foot reaches into the lower left corner of the sheet. The man holds his right arm, to our left, high with his fingers outstretched, and he turns his head to look in that direction. The background is mostly washes of muted, nickel gray with a lighter, fog-gray washes in the bottom left quadrant. The man’s body is outlined lightly in graphite and chalk and shaded with pale peachy tan. The sheet has a discolored crease across the middle.