William Hogarth
Tail Piece: The Bathos

ArtistEnglish, 1697–1764
CultureEnglish
Titles
  • Tail Piece: The Bathos
DateApril 1764
MediumEtching and engraving
Dimensions317 × 335 mm
Plate or block: 12 1/2 × 13 1/4 in. (31.8 × 33.7 cm)
Sheet: 14 1/4 × 15 1/8 in. (36.2 × 38.4 cm)
Credit LineSarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston
Object numberBF.1983.5.77
Non exposé

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Object Type
Provenance[Andrew Edmunds, London]; purchased by the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, 1983.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Inscriptions: above image: TAIL PIECE.; on gallows arm: The Worlds End.; in smoke: FINIS.; above seal at lower left: H. Nature / Bankrupt.; in book at lower left: Exeunt Omnes.; on scroll at lower center: all and every / Atom there- / of to [. . . obscured] / Chaos whom / I appoint my / sole / Excecutor. / Witness Clothq. / Lacbesis. / Atropos.; on print at lower right: THE TIMES; below image, lower left: Design'd and Engrav'd by Wm Hogarth. / The Conic Form in wch the Goddess of / Beauty was worship'd by the Ancients / at Paphos in ye Island of Cyprus. / See the Medals struck when / a Roman Emperor visited / the Temple.; below image, center: THE BATHOS, / or Manner of Sinking, in Sublime Paintings, / inscribed to the Dealers in Dark Pictures. / "Simulacrum Deae non effigie humanâ: / continuus orbislatiore initie tenuem in / ambitum, metae modo, exsurgens et ratio / in obscuro." Tacit: Hist: Lib: 2. / "Venus a Paphiis colitur, cujus simula- / crum nulli rei magis affimile, quam / albae Pyramidi. / Maximus Tyrius: Anna 157. / See the manner of disgracing ye most Se- / rious Subjects, in many celebrated Old / Pictures; by introducing Low, absurd, ob- / scene & often prophane Circumstances into them.; below image, at right: Published according to Act of Parliam.t March 3.d 1764. / A Copy of the precise line of Beauty, as it is represented on the 1st explanatory / *Plate of the Analysis of Beauty, / Note, the similarity of these two / Conic Figures, did not occur to / the Author, till two or three Years / after his publication of the Analy- / sis, in 1754. / *fig:26

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