托尔痛击尘世巨蟒

When Henry Fuseli was elected to the Royal Academy in 1790, he had to hand over one painting to be kept by the Academy forever, a kind of entry fee in oil. Most artists offered something dignified. Fuseli chose a moment of Norse violence. Thor braces in a small boat and hauls up Jormungandr, the serpent said to circle the whole world, drawing back his hammer to strike, while the giant Hymir shrinks in terror beside him and reaches to cut the line. It is a strange, muscular choice for a diploma work, drawn from the old Norse poems at a time when few in London read them. Born in Zurich as Johann Heinrich Fussli, Fuseli had a taste for nightmare subjects, and this one still hangs where he left it, in the Academy's own collection.