The Life and Writings of Henry Fuseli, Volume 3 (of 3)

Henry Fuseli was never interested in gentle criticism. This third volume of his collected lectures and essays proves it. Here, the Swiss-born painter and Royal Academy professor turns his fierce intelligence toward the Italian masters, delivering scorching assessments of how art history had reduced revolutionary artists to mere biographical entries. His extended meditation on Leonardo's 'The Last Supper' dissects both technical mastery and expressive power with the precision of a man who understood craft intimately. But Fuseli's real argument runs deeper: he champions original expression as the lifeblood of art, dismisses those who merely imitate their influences as cultural parasites. Written in the early 19th century when academic orthodoxy ruled, these essays crackle with contrarian energy. For anyone who believes art criticism should provoke rather than merely describe, Fuseli remains essential reading.