Hogarth's Works, with life and anecdotal descriptions of his pictures. Volume 3 (of 3)Ireland, John
General
Hogarth's Works, with life and anecdotal descriptions of his pictures. Volume 3 (of 3)
Ireland, John
Hogarth, William, 1697-1764
The stern attention which our Don gives to the Shepherdess Marcella,
who is vindicating herself to those that surround the corpse, well
expresses his determination to defend her cause, and protect her
from insult. The shepherd in a similar attitude to the soldier in
Vandyke's "Belisarius," and Sancho blubbering with his finger in his
eye, are well-imagined; but the figure of Marcella is affected and
stiff, and the shepherd on her right hand has more city pertness than
rural simplicity.
Vanderbank has taken this scene for one of the prints in Jarvis'
translation, and by placing Marcella where she ought to be, on
the summit of the rock, rendered his design more picturesque than
Hogarth's.--_Vide Shelton_, p. 10.
PLATE IV.
THE INNKEEPER'S WIFE AND DAUGHTER ADMINISTERING CHIRURGICAL
ASSISTANCE TO THE POOR KNIGHT OF LA MANCHA.
[Illustration: DON QUIXOTE PLATE IV.]
Don Quixote's adventure with the Yanguessian carriers having
terminated in his being most bountifully beaten, he is here
represented in the hay-loft of a very sorry inn, attended by the
hostess and her daughter, Maritornes, and his faithful squire; the
two former administering comfort to his sufferings, the third holding
a candle; and the last, with a most rueful countenance, bewailing
his own unfortunate participation in the buffetings of his lord and
master.
The picture which Cervantes draws of Maritornes, Hogarth has well
transferred to the copper. Thus is she portrayed:--
"From head to heel she was not seven palms[118] high, and burdened
with shoulders that forced her to look down more than she wished.
Added to this, she was broad-faced, flat-pated, saddle-nosed, blind
of one eye, and could scarcely see out of the other."
The hostess could not have been better marked by the pencil of
Teniers; the owl perched over her head should not be overlooked.
That, as well as the rope hung to a beam, cracked walls, etc. etc.,
added to the miserable figure of the knight reclined on his hard
pallet, display variety of wretchedness. I do not recollect to have
seen a print in which the light is more judiciously distributed; in
this and every other particular, I think it much superior to the same
scene designed by Vanderbank in Jarvis' quarto translation.--_Vide
Shelton_, p. 29.
PLATE V.
DON QUIXOTE SEIZES THE BARBER'S BASIN FOR MAMBRINO'S HELMET.
[Illustration: DON QUIXOTE PLATE V.]
In this print the face and figure of the fierce knight is spirited;
the terror and astonishment of the discomfited barber well expressed,
and the triumphant shout of Sancho in the distance admirably
characteristic. Notwithstanding this, I think that Vanderbank's
design for Jarvis, where the squire is brought into the foreground,
contemplating the glittering prize, is a better chosen point of time.
To Sancho he has given a mixture of cunning and simplicity which I
have seldom seen so happily displayed; and taken as a whole, it is
perhaps a superior plate to Hogarth's.--_Vide Shelton_, p. 42.
PLATE VI.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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