Hogarth by David Bindman

Hogarth by David Bindman

Author:David Bindman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Published: 2021-06-15T00:00:00+00:00


75 Hubert Gravelot, Le Lecteur, or The Judicious Lover, 1725–50

Works of art and architecture are omnipresent in the Marriage A-la-Mode; they serve as catalyst and commentary to the action. The need for the Earl to sell his son in marriage comes from his fashionable extravagance in building a vast Palladian mansion with a pretentious double loggia. The paintings on the Earl’s wall represent the taste of connoisseurs for darkened Old Masters, and their martyrdoms and assaults on the human body refer also to the depredations of the Earl’s creditors. The possibilities for humour are infinite; a wall-mirror with a sconce has, instead of a reflecting glass, a hideous gorgon’s head; the ceiling painting of Pharaoh being drowned in the Red Sea places a watery scene at a great height, so that water appears to pour from the ceiling, a joke at the expense of inept wall-painters. The scene After the Marriage contains reminders of the kind of conversation piece, like The Wollaston Family, which Hogarth had so often painted in the previous decade.[77, 78] Elegant dress and card playing are seen as part of a world of aimless pleasure-seeking and extravagance; the miserable expression on the heir’s face suggests that boredom and regret follow on the heels of empty pleasure.[25] The steward who comments despairingly on a sheaf of bills is treated with no more sympathy; a book entitled Regeneration sticking out of his pocket reveals him to be an ‘Enthusiast’ and follower of a chillingly Puritanical sect.



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