Sleeping Monsters 1780

Curator: The Minneapolis Institute of Art holds an intriguing print called “Sleeping Monsters.” Etched and engraved by John Hamilton Mortimer around 1780, it presents quite a scene. What’s your first impression? Editor: Bleak. Decidedly bleak. The monochrome exaggerates the decay, almost to the point of revulsion. And there’s something deeply unsettling in the scale and composition, with these oversized creatures crammed into this tiny, undefined space. Curator: Mortimer certainly pushes against typical depictions of grandeur with these supposedly monstrous figures. I find myself wondering about the social anxieties reflected here. Think about the period—heightened anxieties surrounding societal shifts, burgeoning industrialization. Editor: Right, and perhaps that feeds into this overwhelming sense of imbalance. The stark lines and the detail—the rendering of each hair, scale, and bone—heighten that feeling. The contrast created emphasizes the grotesque nature of their slumbering forms, disrupting traditional ideals of beauty and order. Curator: Absolutely. The grotesque becomes a language itself. And by showing these monsters as asleep, vulnerable even, does it soften our fear, or amplify anxieties about what they represent rising up? He also uses the conventions of history painting, a grand style usually for nobility, to portray subjects like mythological beings, but it almost seems a satirical comment on the status quo. Editor: I see that satire, but it's so formally rigid—typical of academic art. Those tightly controlled lines only further this uncomfortable juxtaposition. Curator: A discomfort Mortimer perhaps meant to provoke. These were sold as prints, broadly distributed, shaping perceptions about social unrest at a specific time in England’s history. The question is not what these beings *are*, but what they mean and communicate to contemporary audiences. Editor: Ultimately, for me it remains unsettling – formally striking but also disturbing in the density and lack of respite it offers the viewer. Curator: Precisely! A lasting and impactful depiction, whether intended as critique or mere fantastical escape.