Analysis of beauty. Plate I.

  • Hogarth, William, 1697-1764
Date:
March 5th 1753
Reference:
38383i
Part of:
Analysis of beauty
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Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

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Credit

Analysis of beauty. Plate I. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Source: Wellcome Collection.

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About this work

Also known as

Previous title, replaced October 2023: A sculpture yard filled with copies of Greek and Roman sculptures, together with contemporary people and objects. Engraving by William Hogarth, 1753

Description

Based on the sculpture yard of Henry Cheere (1709-1787) at Hyde Park Corner, London. Around the central images are diagrams relating to Hogarth's aesthetic treatise, The analysis of beauty, London, 1753. Hogarth conflated all the visual illustrations to his argument into two large plates (the other one being Wellcome Library no. 38384i). Coiled around a cone (figure 26) is a serpentine line which was fundamental to Hogarth's ideal. The simple S line is revealed to exist throughout art but deriving ultimately from nature. The beauty of a curved line is contrasted with the stiffness of a wooden leg. The straightbacked dancing master is awkwardly posed next to the contrapposto position of the statue of Antinous. Among the statues in the yard are the Laocoön, the Apollo Belvedere and the Farnese Hercules. In the left foreground, a large placard contains images of three flayed legs - the central design copied from William Cowper (1660-1709), while on the right a man holds open a book with illustrations derived from theories of proportion proposed by Albrecht Dürer

Publication/Creation

[London] : Wm. Hogarth, March 5th 1753.

Physical description

1 print : engraving, with etching ; image 36.5 x 48.5 cm.

Related material

Complemented by (work): Analysis of beauty. Plate II. (b11962100)
Complemented by (work): The analysis of beauty. Written with a view of fixing the fluctuating ideas of taste / By William Hogarth. (b10877125)

Lettering

Analysis of beauty. plate I. Designed, engraved and published by Wm. Hogarth. March 5th 1753, according to act of parliament (text within print)

Edition

Paulson state III.

References note

R. Paulson, Hogarth's graphic works, London 1989, 3rd edition, no. 195
British Museum Catalogue of political and personal satires, London 1877, vol. 3, no. 3217
The artist's model: its role in British art from Lely to Etty, exhibition catalogue by I. Bignamini and M. Postle, Nottingham, 1991, no. 37, page 62

Reference

Wellcome Collection 38383i

Exhibitions note

Exhibited in ‘The Cult of Beauty’ at Wellcome Collection, London, 26 October 2023 – 28 April 2024

Type/Technique

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    38383i.1

    Note

  • LocationStatusAccess
    Closed stores
    38383i.2
  • LocationStatusAccess
    Closed stores
    38383i.3

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