Puck and fairies, from "A midsummer night's dream"

Paton, Noel (1821-1901)

Item type:

painting

Date of creation:

ca. 1850

Height:

26.4 cm  (10 3/8 in.)

Width:

31.1 cm  (12 1/4 in.)

Technique / Medium:

oil on millboard

Description

This painting presents fanciful images in a forest floor setting (tree roots, flowers, mushrooms, etc.): a smiling figure (presumably Puck) is pictured observing multiple smaller, mostly grotesque figures (fairies), some are playing fanciful musical instruments; highlighted at the edge of the miniature scene is a small reclining nude female (presumably Titania), playing an aulos.

Iconclass

84
tales and fairy tales
48CC73
musical instruments; group of musical instruments - CC - out of doors
83(SHAKESPEARE, Midsummernight's Dream)
(scenes from) specific works of literature: Shakespeare, Midsummernight's Dream
82A(PUCK)
male literary characters (Puck)

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Aulos [4173]
End-blown horn [5177] (fanciful representation(s))
Tabor pipe [6689] (with drum attached; "pipe and tabor")
Drum [2585]

RIdIM images

Image URLs

image link 1

Bibliographic references

Martineau, Jane. Shakespeare in art (London; New York: Merrell, 2003) 234, 235, no. 83.

Wall, Wendy. "Why does Puck sweep?: Fairylore, Merry Wives, and social struggle", Shakespeare Quarterly 52/1 (2001) 67-106. https://doi:10.1353/shq.2001.0021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3648647.


Lamb, Mary Ellen. "Taken by the fairies: Fairy practices and the production of popular culture in A Midsummer Night's Dream", Shakespeare Quarterly 51/3 (2000) 277-312. https://doi:10.2307/2902152.

Schleiner, Winifried. "Imaginative sources for Shakespeare's Puck", Shakespeare Quarterly 36/1 (1985) 65-68. https://doi:10.2307/2870083.

RIdIM record id

6267