The stage is clear for the Countess and her lover
Excerpt from the book 'What Great Paintings Say Vol. II' by Rose-Marie & Rainer Hagen
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The nursemaid has probably already brought the child in for ist traditional morning kiss and then taken it away again. Bringing up children was not a task for parents in these circles; emotional attachment was considered inopportune. In London in the 1740s only some 25 per cent of children reached adulthood. Those that died were largely the children of the poor, but as Hogarth implies in the last painting in the series, the progeny of this arranged marriage will also not survive. The artist marks the child with a black spot as an indication of syphilis, a bequest from its father, and also gives it a crippled leg. Hogarth's unspoken moral: nothing good can come out of a bad marriage.
Forced marriages, concluded against the will of those involved, were nevertheless widespread-at least where money and property were part of the equation. Safeguarding the family fortune took first place over the wishes of the individual. Hogarth knew this from his own experience: he had to elope with his future wife, the daughter of his master, because her father would never have allowed her to wed a penniless apprentice. Hogarth's friend Henry Fielding, author of the highly successful novel Tom Jones, did the same. Finding a priest to conduct a secret wedding was easy.
Marriage as an institution was not highly regarded, certainly not amongst the upper classes. However strange it may sound, this was a consequence of a democratic outlook and a critical attitude towards authority. The English, long before the French, had extensively rejected the controlling role of the Church and Crown over their affairs and in the case of marriage, too, were not willing to be dictated to by a higher authority. A bill stipulating bans, a licence, witnesses, and an official ceremony conducted by an Anglican clergyman as legal requirements for marriage was opposed with the argument that it impinged on personal freedom.
The wife's role was severely restricted within marriage: legally subject to her husband, she was also seen as a lesser human being. "Women are nothing but big children", wrote the Earl of Chesterfield to his son in 1748. "A man of reason ... never seeks their advice on serious matters and never confides in them." In Fielding's novel Tom Jones, a young girl is advised: "So far, madam, from your being concerned alone, your concern is the least, or surely the least important. It is the honour of your family which is concerned in this alliance; you are only the instrument."
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6
The nursemaid has probably already brought the child in for ist traditional morning kiss and then taken it away again. Bringing up children was not a task for parents in these circles; emotional attachment was considered inopportune. In London in the 1740s only some 25 per cent of children reached adulthood. Those that died were largely the children of the poor, but as Hogarth implies in the last painting in the series, the progeny of this arranged marriage will also not survive. The artist marks the child with a black spot as an indication of syphilis, a bequest from its father, and also gives it a crippled leg. Hogarth's unspoken moral: nothing good can come out of a bad marriage.
Forced marriages, concluded against the will of those involved, were nevertheless widespread-at least where money and property were part of the equation. Safeguarding the family fortune took first place over the wishes of the individual. Hogarth knew this from his own experience: he had to elope with his future wife, the daughter of his master, because her father would never have allowed her to wed a penniless apprentice. Hogarth's friend Henry Fielding, author of the highly successful novel Tom Jones, did the same. Finding a priest to conduct a secret wedding was easy.
Marriage as an institution was not highly regarded, certainly not amongst the upper classes. However strange it may sound, this was a consequence of a democratic outlook and a critical attitude towards authority. The English, long before the French, had extensively rejected the controlling role of the Church and Crown over their affairs and in the case of marriage, too, were not willing to be dictated to by a higher authority. A bill stipulating bans, a licence, witnesses, and an official ceremony conducted by an Anglican clergyman as legal requirements for marriage was opposed with the argument that it impinged on personal freedom.
The wife's role was severely restricted within marriage: legally subject to her husband, she was also seen as a lesser human being. "Women are nothing but big children", wrote the Earl of Chesterfield to his son in 1748. "A man of reason ... never seeks their advice on serious matters and never confides in them." In Fielding's novel Tom Jones, a young girl is advised: "So far, madam, from your being concerned alone, your concern is the least, or surely the least important. It is the honour of your family which is concerned in this alliance; you are only the instrument."
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