Apemantus; “Hoy-day! what a sweep of vanity comes this way! They dance! They are mad women!” – Act I, Scene II, Timon of Athens 1994

Edwin Austin Abbey created this drawing, Apemantus, likely toward the end of the nineteenth century, taking as his subject a scene from Shakespeare's Timon of Athens. Here, Abbey illustrates the moment the cynical philosopher Apemantus interrupts a lavish party thrown by the wealthy Timon. Abbey was an American artist who spent much of his career in England, and he made a name for himself illustrating Shakespeare’s plays. The image creates meaning through the stark contrast between Apemantus's disheveled appearance and the extravagance of Timon's party. The neo-classical architecture evokes a sense of timelessness and grandeur, while the revelers' frenzied dancing and drinking suggest moral decay. Abbey worked at a time when there was a rise in the historicism of the late nineteenth-century and it is self-consciously conservative in both style and subject. To understand this work better, a researcher might consult theater history, the history of illustration, and studies of Shakespearean reception. This artwork remains contingent on social and institutional contexts.