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
[66] Though Mr. Malton's description is built on fancy as much as Mr.
Hogarth's design, it must be acknowledged that some of his criticism
is just. With respect to the column, nothing either elevated or
grand has yet been produced by violently deviating from the first
models. Mr. Emlyn, in the year 1782, published a proposition for a
sixth order, which in some points resembles Hogarth's. The plan of
_his_ column is to represent the particular character of our English
chivalry in its most illustrious order--the order of the Garter: it
is to be composed of the single trunks of trees; his capitals are
to be copied from the plumage of the knights' caps, with the Ionic
volutes interwoven and bound together in the front, with the star
of the order between them. The fluting of the trunk is cabled, and
the cables hollow and filled with the English arrow, the feathered
end rising out of each of them. The ornament of the frieze over the
columns is a plume of three ostrich feathers, etc. etc. etc.
Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his discourse delivered December 10, 1776,
gives the following strong reasons against any new order succeeding:--
"Though it is from the prejudice we have in favour of the ancients,
who have taught us architecture, that we had adopted likewise their
ornaments; and though we are satisfied that neither nature nor reason
are the foundation of those beauties which we imagine we see in that
art; yet if any one, persuaded of this truth, should therefore invent
new orders of equal beauty, which we will suppose to be possible,
yet they would not please; nor ought he to complain, since the old
has that great advantage of having custom and prejudice on its side.
In this case we leave what has every prejudice in its favour, to
take that which will have no advantage over what we have left, but
novelty, which soon destroys itself, and at any rate is but a weak
antagonist against custom."
[67] "On our own stage we have seen dances in which the ingenious
composer thought he represented the four seasons, the four elements,
and the five senses. These jigs conveyed about as much meaning as
dancing odes or dancing sermons."
[68] Mr. Rouquet, enamel painter to the King of France, in his
book on _The Present State of the Arts in England_, printed for
Nourse in 1755, after enumerating chasing, engraving, painting,
sculpture, architecture, etc., as arts that are practised in England,
concludes with a chapter on the Art of Cookery, which he thus gravely
introduces:--
"There is an art, the only one that can justly pretend to unite
pleasure with absolute utility; but this art, born in servitude, to
which it is still condemned, notwithstanding its extreme importance,
is reckoned ignoble, for which reason some perhaps will be surprised
at seeing me give it a place in this work; I mean the art of
preparing aliments."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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