Fuseli’s “Urma”

Henry Fuseli included a demonic character of his own creation in some of his paintings. He called the character “Urma.” Dressed in a black hooded robe, Urma kept people in chains and tormented them. Richard Mansergh St. George included two hooded demonic figures in his self-portrait. They could be a reference to Fuseli’s Urma, but their meaning is unclear.

Belisane and Parcival under the Enchantment of Urma
Published by John Raphael Smith after Henry Fuseli
1782
Mezzotint
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection