Tag: William Hogarth
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Art and alcohol
Giovanni Ceccarelli Roma, Italy Fig. 1. Drinking Bacchus. Guido Reni, 1623, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden. Via Wikimedia. In the late 1940s Elaine de Kooning, wife of one of the most eminent exponents of American abstract expressionism (Willem de Kooning), commented that the whole art world of her time had become alcoholic. Yet even earlier, perhaps…
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A Night with Venus, a lifetime with Mercury: syphilis among the British aristocracy in William Hogarth’s marriage à-la-mode
Sally Metzler Chicago, Illinois, USA Fig. 1: William Hogarth The Inspection, from Marriage A-la-Mode ca. 1743, National Gallery, London. William Hogarth’s famous series Marriage à-la-mode parodies English society, particularly their arranged marriages and often dissolute lifestyle. He peppered his satire of upper-class matrimony with a moralizing tone and made clear visual references to syphilis and…