This drawing shows an angry encounter between the prophet Nathan, and King David, from the Biblical book of Samuel. Nathan has been sent by God to confront David with his sins of murder and adultery. Having kindled David’s anger against the rich by use of an allegory of such a man who stole a lamb from a poor person, Nathan throws the accusation back at him – ‘Thou art the man!’.

Shakespeare’s Macbeth is shown a vision of the future by the three witches: a procession of the eight kings who will descend from his rival Banquo, the last holding up a mirror that throws light into Macbeth’s eyes. This design was created in 1773 and reworked while the artist was briefly revisiting his home town of Zürich in 1779. It was almost certainly a compositional study for a spectacular painting (now lost) that Fuseli exhibited in London in 1777.

Oscar, the ancient Gaelic hero, has fallen in battle. His family and supporters stand around him, lamenting his fate. The subject is taken from James Macpherson’s ‘Temora, An Ancient Poem’ (1763). This was one of a series of texts published by Macpherson which were claimed to be translations of the third-century Gaelic bard Ossian. Their raw, heroic qualities inspired passionate admiration around the world.

This appears to be a study for the drawing of ‘Buoncante da Montefeltro’ shown nearby. Fuseli’s figures defy gravity and logic, and it is almost impossible to tell which way up this design should be viewed. An early commentator wrote that one of Fuseli’s compositions showed ‘such incomprehensible sublimity’ that it was said to have been hung upside down at the Royal Academy!

Fuseli renders a scene of spiritual conflict from Dante’s Purgatory (1319- 21) as a grandiose physical drama. Buonconte da Montefeltro was killed in battle in 1289, during Italy’s bloody civil wars. In Dante’s account, good and evil angels vie for his body briefly, but his soul is saved because of one final tear of repentance. This is the scene that Fuseli dramatizes.

Sir Arthegall is the personification of Justice and central protagonist in Book Five of Spenser’s vast Protestant allegory The Fairie Queene (1590). He is accompanied here by his sidekick Talus, armoured from head to toe in invulnerable iron. Mortimer died young, but his art exerted an important influence over contemporaries. Here, he develops a characteristically fierce and ruffianly image of the hero.

This painting presents the key episode in Swiss medieval history as an extravagant physical drama. Representatives of the three original cantons (states) of Switzerland meet on the Rütli (a meadow on the western shore of Lake Lucerne) and promise to overthrow the tyrannical rule of the Austrian empire. Their revolution took place in 1307, and was seen as establishing a democratic spirit in Swiss politics.

This is a scene from a Gothic narrative of Fuseli’s invention. The virile hero, waking from his enchanted sleep, raises his sword to attack a wizard, clasping a chained maiden by his side. The ghostly heads to the left are presumably lost or trapped souls; the manacled woman’s hand hidden to the right is that of another victim of Urma.

A hero saves a maiden from the clutches of a giant, represented only by an enormous hand clutching at the edge of the step. This drawing probably represents the story of Othar and Siritha from the History of the Danes by Saxo Grammaticus (c.1200). Fuseli prided himself on his knowledge of such obscure literary sources.

The Biblical hero Samson, still with his hair and thus his superhuman strength, breaks his bonds. The treacherous Delilah and the Philistines look on, alarmed. This painting was presented to the Royal Academy in 1784, when Rigaud was elected a member. The canvas serves as a showcase for his skills in evoking rippling male flesh.

Before the battle of Towton (1461), during the War of the Roses, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick and the leader of the Edward IV’s Yorkist army, kills his own horse and vows that he will face the superior enemy force on the same terms as the common foot soldier. Tresham has approached this historical subject in the spirit of Fuseli.

In a scene from Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667), Satan and his troops, having been expelled from Heaven for their rebellion, glare back from Hell and rage against God. Barry has used a low viewpoint and strong tonal contrasts to emphasise the heroic proportions of Satan. His rugged, unconventional printmaking technique enhances this characterization.

Satan has been expelled from heaven, and here conjures up his demonic army. This is one of six small engravings executed after designs by Fuseli, illustrating a new edition of Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667). Fuseli was all too aware of the irony in seeing his vast ambitions reduced to little illustrations such as this.

By the light of the moon, the German hero Siegfried bathes in the blood of the dragon he has slain, making him invincible except for a spot between his shoulder blades. The subject derives from a fleeting reference to this scene from the German medieval epic, The Nibelungenlied.

The Germanic hero Siegfried is shown on his knees before Kriemheld, at the moment of their first meeting. The dominatrix-like heroine cups his head in her hands, gently perhaps, but also suggesting violence. The subject is taken from the medieval epic, The Nieblungenlied, where the themes of sexual domination, erotic submission and cruelty are intertwined. Fuseli was one of the few people in Britain to know about this literary source.

The romantic hero Huldbrand embraces his wife, Undine, after she has warned him of the supernatural dangers they are facing. The subject is taken from the short tale Undine by the German writer Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué (1777-1843), first published in 1811 and translated into English in 1818. The story involves the hero Huldbrand, his wife, the water-nymph Undine, and the lovely Bertalda.

In a vast landscape, two angels struggle over a baby. The blond figure is the Good Angel; the dark figure clasping at the child is Evil. The allegory was invented by Blake, but alludes to traditional ideas about angels struggling over souls in Purgatory (that is, caught between Heaven and Hell). This watercolour was the basis of a large colour print by Blake of around 1795, shown nearby.

Two heroically proportioned flying figures struggle over a child, in a vast, almost abstract landscape. The Evil angel is dark-skinned and surrounded by flames, his foot in chains. The Good angel clutches a child, pulling him or her to safety. Blake invented this allegory, which he also represented in a watercolour shown nearby. The interpretation of the image remains disputed.