| The Chandelier in “Enthusiasm” | The Chandelier in “Credulity” |
The Chandelier in “Enthusiasm”
The Chandelier in “Credulity”
In Plate I., behind the prostrate woman a bearded Jew regards the preacher with mock {96} devotion, what time he kills a flea between his thumb-nails. Before him lies a book open at a picture of Abraham offering up Isaac. In Plate II. the figure of the Jew is much weakened, whilst a knife inscribed “Bloody” is laid across a picture of an altar on the page of the open book.
In the background of both plates a motley collection of devotees assists at these religious orgies. To the extreme left of Plate II., which, by the addition of several persons in the congregation, has become greatly overcrowded, a minister directs the attention of a terrified wretch, whose hair bristles with fear, to the extraordinary double-globed chandelier above their heads.
Final emphasis is given to the whole satire by the figure of a Turk (slightly varied in the two plates), who regards with amusement through the window the idolatry of those “dogs of Christians.”
So much for the details of the plates. As regards the general effect of the whole, the superiority of the suppressed design will be evident at a glance. In lighting, balance, and composition, the substituted design is immeasurably removed from the original. Nor would this be wonderful if, {97} as Ireland surmised, “the alterations were made by degrees.”