Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
Adriana Khodayari
August 3 2010
There have been more prisons in London than in any other European city in 1700’s. “The
Fleet Prison was the oldest of them…it was famous for its ‘secrets’ unlawful marriages,
degraded clergymen, marring houses …and the watch-maker Dr Gaynam who impersonated a
clergyman”1 This was the place where Hogarth spends his young life due to his father’s financial
trouble and perhaps on the way to a rude and unfair life which made him to denounce all the
social madness. He later reflected his dissatisfactions in his prints and paintings.
What was the purpose of such pungent criticism of English society’s behaviors at the
time? Hogarth courageously attacks the selfishness of the bourgeoisie, its vanity, insolence, and
its desire for honor and mockery when they looking for titles of nobility, laziness and conceit of
the aristocracy. He denounces the conduct of the Methodist clergy and ignorance of Continental
European art lovers in his works such as, “The four stages of Cruelty (1751), “Marriage a-la
Mode” (1742-3), “A Rake's Progress” (1732–33), The Harlot's Progress (1731) and among many
others.
The later eighteenth century, is regarded as the beginning of “a new dark age”2, in which
“there was a progressive degradation of the standards of life”3, under the “blight of a growing
industrialism, while the earlier part of the century is considered a golden age”4, one of those
1
Peter Ackroyd, “London the Biography” 1st-ed. Published by Nan Talase. Printed New York 2001. Page 307.
2
Ibid.,page 308
3
Ibid, Page 307.
4
Espasa, Historia del Arte. Printed in Barcelona-Spain1999. Page. 913
Khodayari 2
periods when English working-class prosperity was at its height. The social history of London
tenaciously and vigorously refuses to adjust itself to this formula. There is a cleavage, certainly,
about the middle of the century, but it is improvement, not deterioration, which can be traced
about 1750 and becomes marked between 1780 and 1820.“London was growing more rapidly in
bricks and mortars than in population as people left the crowded lanes of the city for the newer
parts of the town but all this social movement”5 was on the perception of Hogarth.
Hogarth plays the “role of moralist and critic, which seeks to bring back to the men by
the path of righteousness and with the aim of having a national sentiment and patriotic to their
homeland”6. He hates the rules dictated by the Academy, as it believed it did not reflect what is
lived and even more did not seek a national identity; the academy became a puppet for Hogarth,
more of the rules as French and Italian art and architecture (specially the Palladian style). He
fells the “academy theory of painting had become overcharged with outworn beliefs, that no
longer responsive to the demands of modern life”7 . But at the same time, in most of his work he
uses the images from other artists like Rembrandt, Le Brun, Raimondi and Correggio.
Hogarth sees one of his most odious criticisms in religious fanaticism, and superstition.
In “Delineate Enthusiasm” (1762) and “Cruelty, superstitious and Fanatics” (1762) Hogarth
claimed by the satire of parishioners and especially the Methodist bishops to be the opposite of
what they proclaim. In “Cruelty, Superstitious and Fanatics” we are shown inside a
congregation, in which its members act as if they had lost their mind is a total madness, listening
to loud sermon by one of the most notorious bishops of all time, George Whitefield.
Near the pulpit to the right is a “sonometer”8 which measures the level of outcry.
5
Ibid., Page. 913
6
Timothy Edwin, “William Hogarth and the Aesthetics of Nationalism”.Hunington Library Quarterly. Ed-
University of California 2001- pag-384.
7
Ibid., pag-384.
Khodayari 3
According to historians Whitefield had a very powerful voice. The sound meter seems more an
instrument of torture, at the top has a mouth wide open while the instrument hangs by its nose
with a big hook ... of the mouth “come the words ‘blood, blood, blood’ which was what most
Whitefield is presented in the pulpit with his arms raised in a theatrical gesture; in his left
hand he is wearing a scarf that symbolizes grief, and holding a puppet of a devil with a grill in its
hand. In his right hand, there is a puppet of a witch flying on her broom while “Enthusiasm
Delineate” witch is supplanted by the image of God with the symbol of the trinity. Hogarth
satirizes the bishop as an outrageous charlatan, without conscience as “the portrait of John
Wollaston, 1742”10.The bishop was the opposite of what Hogarth represents at least into the
physical description with exception that the bishop was a cross-eyed and in this aspect Hogarth
was not exaggerating. The text beside him has opened to a page reading, “I speak as a fool”11
In a small cloud on the right of the charlatan preacher, is the figure of a child with angel
wings, perhaps is a resented ghost of a dead orphan. He has a sign that says “Saint Trap Money”
and money from the poor and money from the bourgeois. The collector box is a mouse trap that
is under the pulpit; in effect Whitefield was the best collector of alms and money from the
freighted congregation. A mouse trap for a congregation who use live like a mouse in a crowded
Hogarth further represents the bishop with a clerical robe and under the suit as harlequin
or clown; waving his arms like a madman. Not far from the bishop, there are windows with thick
iron bars as they often were used in mad houses. All exaggerated expression of the preacher is
8
Bernd Krysmansky, “ We see a ghost: Hogart’s satire on Methodists. The art bulletin, vol 8 No. 2 (June 1998) page
295.JSTOR August 11-2010
9
Ibid., page 295.
10
Ibid, page 295.
11
2 Corinth 2:23. Bible.
Khodayari 4
nothing more than a critique of the Methodists. Hogarth tries to demonstrate it meticulously
when the preacher shakes his head and loses his wig to reveals his shaved head style of the
Jesuits. “Shaven crown of a Jesuit, an allusion to the widely held option that Methodist were in
All religious fanaticism has nothing more than a repressed sexual desire as we’ve seen in
Marriage a-la Mode when the lady extends her body with pleasure”13, Hogarth with his vision of
a superb artist can clearly see, and express it in a way that best knows how. One factor related to
sexual desire is the great thermometer located a bottom of the work. The thermometer was
accident near the thermometer, there are two women in different sexual attitudes”14. Another
aspect of the thermometer is to measure the level of religious fervor of the congregation. The
temperature is measured by word like madness, ecstasy, lust, agony and suicide. Lust was
heavily marked and suicide next to the brain in the lowest part of the thermometer and it was so
common in London, after all “by 1760 London was the suicide capital of Europe15” that people
were accustomed to seeing dead bodies everywhere, perhaps with the purpose of being close to
God.
The first woman giving birth rabbits in the gesture of “Cruelty, superstitious and
Fanatics” was Mary Toft seems to confuse everyone with her ideas of baby rabbits instead of
baby human, which is a symbol of unbridled sexual desire, while in “Enthusiasm Delineate” the
same figure of Mary Toft in ecstasy from her belly hugging the small image of Christ, a clear
critique of Spanish mysticism. This posture was taken from Correggio in his Compianto su
12
Bernd Krysmansky, “ We see a ghost: Hogart’s satire on Methodists. The art bulletin, vol 8 No. 2 (June 1998)
13
Timothy Edwin, “William Hogarth and the Aesthetics of Nationalism”.Hunington Library Quarterly. Ed-
University of California 2001- pag-386.
14
Terry Castle, “The Female Thermometer: Eighteenth-Century culture and the Invention of the Uncanny” (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1995),
15
Peter Ackroyd, “London the Biography” 1st-ed. ISBN 0-385-49770-9 Printed in NY 2001. Page 249.
Khodayari 5
Cristo Morto. In the case of “Saint Teresa of Jesus, her love for Jesus becomes more earthly than
divine”16.
The other woman is a young girl, who was defeated by the blandishments of another
preacher or perhaps a rich man. Hogarth took a model from Charles Le Brun in Pure Love, A
method to learn to design passions. First in “Cruelty, superstitious and Fanatics” the man in
fancy French outfit introduces a figure in the corset of the young woman while in “Enthusiasm
Delineate”, the figure drops and the preacher's hand is placed on her chest , sexual abuse by
those to people’s ignorance or innocence of youth, “virgin young woman were available
everywhere”17 . Like in Marriage a-la Mode in scene of the inspection were that little girl was
The congregation of hell is similar in both, scream and shouts with the preaching of the
speaker. Something striking are the figures of Jesus, in the hands of the congregation and how
they insatiably devour them as if the salvation of the soul. Again a reference to the Methodist
fanaticism and even more to Catholic doctrine, ‘The body of Christ’ and the idolatry of plaster
images. In fact this image of Jesus has a resemblance from Rembrandt in Hundred Guilder Print.
As for the puppets of “Cruelty, superstitious and Fanatics”, these represent ghosts, like
Mrs. Veal who appeared to her friend the day after her death. The puppet located in the center of
Julius Caesar, looking into a broken mirror with daggers stuck in their body, and finally the ghost
of a noble Sir George Villiers, who returns to announce the imminent death of his own son the
Duke of Buckingham. “Several Whitefield followers were large illiterate proletarians, the kind of
people who are more susceptible to superstition and believing in ghosts and spells”18. It was
believed at the time according to an article published on August 23, 1753, “that if a girl of eight
16
Espasa. Historia del Arte. Printed Barcelona Spain 1999. Arte del Barroco español. pag. 687
17
Richard Baum, Hogarth and Fielding as social critiques. The Art Bulletin Vol 16, No 1 (mar 1934
18
Bernd Krysmansky, “ We see a ghost: Hogart’s satire on Methodists. The art bulletin, vol 8 No. 2 (June 1998)
Khodayari 6
years old decided to wear a pointy hat surely she would be a Witch ... and then take the so-called
'imps', small creatures like cats, toads, rats and others animals and she would feed them with her
own blood”19. The Holy Spirit has the same properties as a ghost and a witch because after all
One of the most interesting elements is the chandelier resembling a grotesque creature.
The threatening celestial mechanism is inscribed: “‘A new and correct globe of hell by Romaine'
one eye reads ‘Bottomless Pit’, the other ‘Molten Lead Lake’; the nose is inscribed ‘Pitch and
Tar Rivers’, the mouth ‘Eternal Damnation Gulf’; one cheek reads ‘Parts Unknown’, the other
‘Brimstone Ocean’; the equator line is marked ‘Horrid Zone’ and the small sphere above
‘Deserts of new Purgatory’”20. All of these places in the lamp allude to the Catholic doctrine to
horrify the congregation with the hellish message so people can feel they already are in hell. The
only one who looks in his sense is the infidel, a Turk perhaps who patiently is watching the
whole scene with his pipe in his hand. Perhaps he was a merchant who live in London?
Hogarth lived in a period of time where the commercialization of art had become a
bargain; the schemes used by the artists were repeated over and over again. So he decided to
change the course of his artistic approach, with series of paintings and engravings moralizing and
criticize. The most remarkable is that although historians give either opinion about his work,
Hogarth was able to interpret to perfection a popular language that can be understood without
any difficulties of academic obstacles. This is one of the main reasons why William Hogarth
became the supporter of British art; he knew how to communicate through his work without fear
19
See Hannsferdinand D6bler, Hexenwahn: Die Geschichte einer Verfolgung (Munich: Bertelsmann, 1977), 198 and
ill. on p. 189. In the Middle Ages the cat was considered an attribute of witches
20
Henry Wharton includes "Purgatory" among the "peculiar doctrines of the Church of Rome" that "derive their
original from Enthusiastic Visions and Revelations"; Wharton, The Enthusiasm of the Church of Rome
Demonstrated in Some Observations Upon the Life of Ignatius Loyola (London: R. Chiswell, 1688), It is certainly
no coincidence that the inscription on the small globe incredulity, Superstition, and Fanaticism reads "Deserts of
New Purgatory."
Khodayari 7
and with absolute sincerity. “Hogarth is full of both; nor between the genteel and the vulgar,
because Hogarth is a satirist of actual life high as well as low nor between the beautiful and the
grotesque21.
21
Carrassat, P. F. R., Maestros de la pintura, Spes Editorial, S.L., Barcelona, 2005. ISBN 84-8332-597-7