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Henry Fuseli

Inquisition: Study for Illustration to Columbiad by Joel Barlow (1806)

The Spanish Inquisition, personified as a powerful and gigantic woman, stands on top of a pyre, spreading her mantle and looking down upon a victim. Fuseli’s design illustrates lines from Book IV of Joel Barlow’s The Columbiad (1809). This was an epic poem about American history, representing its vast themes through allegory. Typically, Fuseli presents complex subject-matter as a sexually-charged physical drama.