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Henry Fuseli
Percival Delivering Belisane from the Enchantment of Urma exhibited 1783
Oil on canvas, 991 x 1257 mm
Presented by the National Art Collections Fund 1941
Percival Delivering Belisane from the Enchantment of Urma exhibited 1783
Oil on canvas, 991 x 1257 mm
Presented by the National Art Collections Fund 1941
Percival Delivering Belisane from the Enchantment of Urma
scenario by Sarah Stewart-White
“Wait! Don’t you recognise them?” the wizard screamed in frenzied excitement, waving his staff in front of the faded faces that were wailing and moaning. The knight looked away in disgust. They were grotesque: their skin was cracked and gnarled like charred wood and their breath was tainted with the damp, musty stench of stagnant hatred.
“I hope you rot in hell!” one of the faces screeched before spitting in the knight’s face. Instinctively he reached up to cradle the wound, it felt like acid burning his skin.
“You caused all of this!” The wizard waved his arm in front of the faces. “They hate you and they want revenge.” His thin grey lips slightly parted to reveal an evil smile.
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The wizard has conjured the knight to his world with the help of these lost souls- women who fell in love with the knight and suffered broken hearts. The wizard must capture the knight before his heir is created-as it is prophesied this heir will vanquish the wizard.
In return for help, the wizard has promised the lost souls freedom from their pain. The knight believes he is having a nightmare where a wizard is attempting to steal the love of his life. However, this young maiden is one of the knight’s previous loves in disguise who has come back to haunt and lure him into the wizard’s nightmare world.
When the wizard transforms the faded images into beautiful women the knight fell in love with long ago, he is shocked. Suddenly he sees his mother, the one who loved him most and was hurt the deepest, in the sea of faces. Unable to believe his mother would be involved with the wizard, the knight drops his guard. At that moment the maiden at his side tears the soul from his body and throws it towards the faces. Instantly the women are restored to their former selves, oblivious to the existence of the knight. Meanwhile the knight’s tortured soul fades, his face twisted and deformed by his past deeds, forever held captive by the evil wizard.
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