Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
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Credit
Analysis of beauty. Plate I. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Source: Wellcome Collection.
Based on the sculpture yard of Henry Cheere (1709-1787) at Hyde Park Corner, London. Around the central images are diagrams relating to Hogarth's aesthetic treatise, The analysis of beauty, London, 1753. Hogarth conflated all the visual illustrations to his argument into two large plates (the other one being Wellcome Library no. 38384i). Coiled around a cone (figure 26) is a serpentine line which was fundamental to Hogarth's ideal. The simple S line is revealed to exist throughout art but deriving ultimately from nature. The beauty of a curved line is contrasted with the stiffness of a wooden leg. The straightbacked dancing master is awkwardly posed next to the contrapposto position of the statue of Antinous. Among the statues in the yard are the Laocoön, the Apollo Belvedere and the Farnese Hercules. In the left foreground, a large placard contains images of three flayed legs - the central design copied from William Cowper (1660-1709), while on the right a man holds open a book with illustrations derived from theories of proportion proposed by Albrecht Dürer
| Location | Access | ||
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On Exhibition 38383i.1 |
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Closed stores 38383i.2 |
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Closed stores 38383i.3 |