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Prospero, Caliban and Miranda in Shakespeare's The Tempest, Act 1 Scene II

Artist Henry Fuseli (Swiss, 1741–1825)
Title Prospero, Caliban and Miranda in Shakespeare's The Tempest, Act 1 Scene II
Date Ca. 1806–1810
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions Framed: 43 1/4 x 38 1/8 x 4 in. (109.9 x 96.8 x 10.2 cm)
Support: 35 1/2 x 27 1/2 in. (90.2 x 69.9 cm)
Credit Line Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
Accession Number 79.70

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About this Work

In this scene from Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1610–11), the wizard Prospero, protecting his daughter Miranda from the advances of his slave Caliban, threatens the slave with his magical powers. Caliban’s twisted figure, flooded in strong light, dramatically dominates the composition. Henry Fuseli was Europe’s most famous painter of Shakespearean subjects around 1800. Many of his works reflect the taste for the “Gothic”—a term used at the time to describe the supernatural. The popularity of Gothic subjects signaled a shift in the arts from Neoclassicism to Romanticism.


Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.

Exhibition Title Caliban Confronting Prospero, Miranda Asleep in the Cavern

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"Prospero, Caliban and Miranda in Shakespeare's The Tempest, Act 1 Scene II | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=79.70