1760.
1. Frontispiece to Tristram Shandy. Of this plate there are two copies; in the first of which the hat and clock are omitted. S. Ravenet sculp. In this plate is the portrait of Dr. Burton, of York, the Jacobite physician and antiquary, in the character of Dr. Slop.
Sterne probably was indebted for these plates (especially the first of them) to the following compliment he had paid our author in the first volume of Tristram Shandy. "Such were the outlines of Dr. Slop's figure, which, if you have read Hogarth's Analysis of Beauty, and, if you have not, I wish you would, you must know, may as certainly be caracatured, and conveyed to the mind by three strokes as three hundred."
2. Frontispiece to Brook Taylor's Perspective of Architecture.[1] With an attempt at a new order. W. Hogarth, July 1760. W. Woollet sculp. Lest any reader should suppose that this idea of forming a new capital out of the Star of St. George, the Prince of Wales's Feather,[2] and a regal Coronet, was hatched in the mind of Hogarth after he had been appointed Serjeant Painter, the following passage in the Analysis will prove that many years before he had conceived the practicability of such an attempt: see p. 40. "I am thoroughly convinced in myself, however it may startle some, that a completely new and harmonious order of architecture in all its parts might be produced, &c." Again, p. 46. "Even a capital, composed of the aukward and confined forms of hats and perriwigs, as Fig. 48. Plate I. in a skilful hand might be made to have some beauty." Mr. S. Ireland has the original sketch.
[1] Published in two volumes, folio, 1761, by Joshua Kirby, Designer in Perspective to his Majesty.—"Here is a curious frontispiece, designed by Mr. Hogarth; but not in the same ludicrous style as the former (see p. [333]): it were to be wished that he had explained its meaning; for, being symbolical, the meaning of it is not so obvious as the other. To me it conveys the idea, which Milton so poetically describes, of the angel Uriel gliding down to Paradise on a sun-beam; but the young gentleman has dropped off before he had arrived at his journey's end, with Palladio's book of architecture on his knees. A ray of light from the sun, rising over a distant mountain, is directed to a scroll on the ground, on which are two or three scraps of perspective; over which, supported by a large block of stone, is the upper part of a sceptre, broke off; the shaft very obliquely and absurdly inclined, somewhat resembling the Roman fasces, and girt above with the Prince of Wales's coronet, as an astragal, through which the fasces rise, and swell into a crown, adorned with embroidered stars; this is the principal object, but most vilely drawn. The ray passes through a round temple, at a considerable distance, which is also falsly represented, the curves being for the distance too round, and consequently the diminution of the columns is too great. It appears to pass over a piece of water; on this side the ground is fertile and luxuriant with vegetation, abounding with trees and shrubs; on the other side it is rocky and barren.[A] What is indicated by this seems to be, that, where the arts are encouraged by the rays of royal favour, they will thrive and flourish; but where they are neglected, and do not find encouragement, they will droop and languish." Malton's Appendix to his Treatise on Perspective.
[A] The idea of this contrast between fertility and barrenness is an old one. Hogarth probably took it from the engraving known by the name of Raffaelle's Dream.
[2] Mr. H. Emlyn has lately realised this plan, by his Proposals for a new order of architecture, 1781.
3. Mr. Huggins. A small circular plate. Hogarth pinx. Major sculp. On the left, a bust, inscribed, "Il divino Ariosto." "Dante l'Inferno, il Purgatorio, il Paradiso." Mr. Huggins (of whom see p. [19].) had this portrait engraven, to prefix to his translation of Dante, of which no more than a specimen was ever published.
The bust of Ariosto was inserted by the positive order of Mr. Huggins (after the plate was finished), though much against the judgement of the engraver, who was convinced that a still ground would have shewn the countenance of the person represented to much greater advantage. Mr. Major's charge was only three guineas, and yet eleven years elapsed before he received even this trifling acknowledgement for his labour. Dr. Monkhouse has the plate.