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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While the skinny flautist offers a comical contrast to the portly singer, the role played by the man with the curlers in his hair is unclear. It can't be the husband; we have already met him in the earlier scenes in the series and he looks quite different. Besides, he is more likely to be found with his mistress or in a tavern than at the lever of his own wife.
Comic strips without speech bubbles
Hogarth's tragicomedy is set in London, at that time the largest city in Europe with a population of almost 700,000. From London, ships sailed to colonies and trading posts in Asia, Africa, and America and made the city the centre of international trade. The belief took root that England's future lay not on the European Continent, but on the seas.
Global commerce brought people of a different skin colour to England: around the middle of the 18th century, the number of black Africans in the country was estimated to be 14,000. Most of them lived in London. They were brought in as slaves and had no legal entitlement either to a salary or civil rights-unless, that is, their owner gave them their freedom. It was considered fashionable to have domesticated coloureds as servants and pages. The kneeling boy in the Indian turban evidently knows the Squander household very well. He is pointing to the figure of a man wearing antlers-a symbol of a deceived husband, but also a statue of Actaeon, the mythical hunter who surprised the goddess Diana while she was bathing naked and who was turned into a stag in punishment and torn to pieces by his own dogs. The auction number is still stuck onto the figure. The picture on the tray also recalls forbidden erotic pleasures: the married Zeus, in the shape of a swan, approaches the similarly married Queen Leda.
Hogarth's series are forerunners of the comic strip, whereby Hogarth does without speech bubbles and explanatory texts. The first important artist in the history of English painting, he had no classical training, never went to Italy, and was more interested in the society of his day than in subjects from antiquity. Relating a story unfamiliar to his public, in several pictures and without an explanation, was his invention-or at least, it was he who first raised it to the level of art. He thereby drew upon his public's general knowledge and their thought processes, preferences and prejudices. Thus even if people didn't know who Actaeon was, they were familiar with the horned image of the cuckolded husband. The heraldic coronets signalled that the father had died and the young Earl was now rich. In London society and elsewhere besides, castrati drew forth admiration and contempt like no other type of singer. The male habit of sticking one hand into one's jacket-a gesture later made famous by Napoleon-is evidently one which was laughed at: Hogarth illustrates it twice.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
While the skinny flautist offers a comical contrast to the portly singer, the role played by the man with the curlers in his hair is unclear. It can't be the husband; we have already met him in the earlier scenes in the series and he looks quite different. Besides, he is more likely to be found with his mistress or in a tavern than at the lever of his own wife.
Comic strips without speech bubbles
Hogarth's tragicomedy is set in London, at that time the largest city in Europe with a population of almost 700,000. From London, ships sailed to colonies and trading posts in Asia, Africa, and America and made the city the centre of international trade. The belief took root that England's future lay not on the European Continent, but on the seas.
Global commerce brought people of a different skin colour to England: around the middle of the 18th century, the number of black Africans in the country was estimated to be 14,000. Most of them lived in London. They were brought in as slaves and had no legal entitlement either to a salary or civil rights-unless, that is, their owner gave them their freedom. It was considered fashionable to have domesticated coloureds as servants and pages. The kneeling boy in the Indian turban evidently knows the Squander household very well. He is pointing to the figure of a man wearing antlers-a symbol of a deceived husband, but also a statue of Actaeon, the mythical hunter who surprised the goddess Diana while she was bathing naked and who was turned into a stag in punishment and torn to pieces by his own dogs. The auction number is still stuck onto the figure. The picture on the tray also recalls forbidden erotic pleasures: the married Zeus, in the shape of a swan, approaches the similarly married Queen Leda.
Hogarth's series are forerunners of the comic strip, whereby Hogarth does without speech bubbles and explanatory texts. The first important artist in the history of English painting, he had no classical training, never went to Italy, and was more interested in the society of his day than in subjects from antiquity. Relating a story unfamiliar to his public, in several pictures and without an explanation, was his invention-or at least, it was he who first raised it to the level of art. He thereby drew upon his public's general knowledge and their thought processes, preferences and prejudices. Thus even if people didn't know who Actaeon was, they were familiar with the horned image of the cuckolded husband. The heraldic coronets signalled that the father had died and the young Earl was now rich. In London society and elsewhere besides, castrati drew forth admiration and contempt like no other type of singer. The male habit of sticking one hand into one's jacket-a gesture later made famous by Napoleon-is evidently one which was laughed at: Hogarth illustrates it twice.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Marriage A-la-Mode, 4, Detail 2 ("Sweet talk and sweet music")