A dying man surrounded by fantastic and mythological figures. Coloured etching.
- Reference:
- 16062i
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Description
The two references to the Jesuits may provide the key to the print. The Jesuit order was repressed in France in 1764. The gravestone from which the skeleton emerges says 'Here lies the Society of Jesus 17..' which may indicate the contemporaneity of the events surrounding the suppression of the Jesuits
A bearded god holds a pump to the dying man's head, to which the latter is holding his left hand; the names detailed below spume out of a funnel on the pump. A Medusa figure in a red skirt lunges at the dying man with a fork-tongued serpent and a dagger. Mercury stands behind her on a pedestal with the caduceus in his left hand. A skeleton in a blue priestly vestment blows out of a hole in the bottom left-hand corner and points at the man; behind him lurk a scythe and hourglass. Between the skeleton and the Medusa, a woman with a drum lies on the floor. Behind the bed a figure with "l'Academie" written above its blank face holds the hand of a blindfolded god who lifts a wreath above the dying man's head. One of the three gods pictured in the top right-hand corner holds a large leaf in the manner of a pen and in the other hand a mirror. In the bottom right-hand corner a harlequin with a puppet modelled upon himself turns the tap affixed to the head of a large, forlorn centaur which drips into the vase marked "Gouttes d'Hoffman"
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