Pictorial Narratives: Hogarth’s Marriage àla Mode Essay -- Essays Pa

pictural Narratives Hogarths union la ModeOne of Hogarths bitterest satires, Marriage la Mode, showed the disastrous results of a marriage of convenience concluded betwixt the son of a poverty-stricken nobleman and the daughter of an aspiring merchandiser (Jarrett 88). Yet this background information is not necessary to appreciate to individually one painting independently. From the starting signal painting, in which the ambitious fathers of the couple exchange silver and titles, to the final two prints that show the husband and wifes melodramatic deaths, each of the six prints tells both a episode in the myth of this doomed arranged marriage and a story in and of itself. The first two Marriage la Mode prints, The Marriage Settlement and presently After the Marriage, both contain numerous arrive ats of art, architecture, period practise and other carefully placed props that allow each work to tell a story without being dependent on the mise en scene of the seria l. Because of its immense detail, The Marriage Contract is perhaps one of the easiest prints to appreciate. Even without either prior knowledge of this work, an inexperienced art critic can yet ascertain that the scene takes place in an aristocratic home. Copies of paintings after the obsolete masters hang in gilt frames, the ceiling is painted and the walls hung with commons damask. Two men sit at a table in some sort of business transaction, as evidenced by the figurehead of three lawyers, numerous documents and money. The gentleman on the rights depiction hangs on the wall above the table, indicating that the deal is being brokered in his home. He is correspondingly dressed in fine clothes, whereas the other gentleman is more than modestly attired. The skill with which Hogarth has represented the swelling aristocratic pride of the Earl and the lower-bred, commercial demeanor of the Sheriff was regarded by eighteenth-century critics, best acquainted with the social m anners of their age, as masterly (Webster 103). A document that reads Marriage Settlement of the Rt. Honble Lord Viscount Squanderfield rests in the hand of the non-artistocratic gentleman, his careful perusal of the document indicating that he is the brides father. In turn, he has handed over a sum of money to the Viscounts father (who the inexperienced viewer can assume holds the title earl). In turn, the Earl points to his contribution to the marriag... ...m each other. The Roman bust with a broken odorize on the mantle and the painting above it, featuring Cupid playing a nisus on the bagpipes ironically titled O Happy Groves amidst falling ruins, point the similarly ruined and collapsing state of the couples marriage.Hogarths remarkably troubled satire of marriage for money, his pungent details of upper-class life, and his mastery of tortuous scenes find perhaps their highest expression in this series, generally considered his finest work. (Encarta). Although critics h ave commented that the series progresses somewhat abruptly, with little idea of what occurs in between the six scenes, seldom is any one painting referred to independent of the others. But because of the complexity of each scene, the paintings, The Marriage Contract and The Tte--Tte in particular, can well stand by themselves as brilliant satires of arranged marriage in the 18th century. Such is the genius of Hogarth. Works CitedHallett, Mark. Hogarth. London Phaidon Press, 2000.Jarrett, Derek. England in the mount of Hogarth. London Hart-Davis, MacGibbon Ltd, 1974. Webster, Mary. Hogarth. Danbury, CT MasterWorks Press, 1984.