A Cognoscenti Contemplating the Beauties of the Antique 11 - 1801
Dimensions: 14 x 10 1/2 in. (35.56 x 26.67 cm) (sheet)
Copyright: Public Domain
James Gillray created this print using etching and engraving, processes rooted in the skilled application of line. Here, line isn't just a means of representation, but of pointed social commentary. Look closely at the collector, Sir William Hamilton, his figure contorted by age and affectation. Each etched stroke exaggerates his posture, highlighting the absurdity of the 'cognoscenti.' The lines define not just form, but also the biting satire that Gillray was known for. Consider too, the depicted objects – the classical busts, the oddities. They're rendered with a precision that mocks the collector's obsession. They are, after all, commodities, accumulated through colonial exploits and fueled by the labor of unseen hands. Gillray’s print challenges the very notion of connoisseurship, reminding us that taste is always intertwined with power, politics, and the complex social fabric of its time.
Comments
As the dedication states, Gillray was poking fun at William Hamilton, a former British ambassador to Naples. The picture of the erupting volcano alludes both to Hamilton's embassy and his research into Mount Vesuvius. After a 36-year sojourn to Italy, the elderly Hamilton returned to London in 1800 with his young second wife, Lady Hamilton, and her lover, Lord Horatio Nelson, the legendary naval hero. Nelson and the Hamiltons were the subject of much public gossip, as the three lived openly together in England, and Lady Hamilton gave birth to Nelson's child in 1801. In the print, Lady Hamilton is depicted in the guise of Cleopatra, and Nelson is portrayed as Mark Antony. The portrait of Claudius, whose wife was also famously unfaithful, represents Hamilton; the antlers on the frame symbolize cuckoldry. Hamilton's activities as a connoisseur were as renowned as his personal life. He amassed two major collections of antiquities, the first had been sold to the British Museum in 1772. He also collected paintings, selling 334 pictures at auction in 1801, the year of this print. Gillray implies that it was Hamilton's absorption in connoisseurship that distracted him from his wife's affair.
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