The Judgment of Paris

Delacroix's 'Mephistopheles'

Nigel Bruce

• 1 min read
Delacroix's 'Mephistopheles'
Cropped photo of Delacroix by Félix Nadar (1858)

Eugène Delacroix's lithograph of Méphistophélès dans les Airs (sometimes translated as Mephistopheles Flying Over Wittenberg), which he produced in 1828 as the first of a series of 17 to illustrate Goethe's Faust. If Martin Luther was Faust, who was Mephistopheles? Was he a demon? An agent acting on behalf of the Devil?

Delacroix Mephistopheles
With conscience cocked to listen for the thunder,
He saw the Devil busy in the wind,
Over the chiming steeples and then under
The doors of nuns and doctors who had sinned.
  • W.H. Auden: Luther