Art reponse 5 satirical prints - Villiers Park Educational Trust

A Suggested response for Art Activity 5:
“Take two satirical prints produced between 1770 and 1830, with similar themes. Then compare
how each print has uniquely utilised humour, distortion, imagery and text to make specific social
and/or political comments”
Before we begin….
Some Definitions
•  Fop – A man who is considered foolish and particularly vain in
character. Completely absorbed with his appearance. Popular term in
the 17th century.
•  Macaroni – A fashionable, outspoken and outlandish personality who
is deemed excessive in all aspects of his character. Adopts
“Eurocentric” inflections in style, language and manner.Term used in
the 18th century and was sometimes applied to women.
•  Dandy – A self-made man. A ‘gallant’ who leads a flamboyant
lifestyle not dissimilar to the Macaroni and the Fop. The Dandy
specifically evolved from a lower class of men, who attempted to rise
to an elite standing, through the imitation of certain pretensions. Term
popular at the end of the 18th and during the 19th centuries, and was
sometimes applied to women.
Some Examples
Detail from a Portrait of Mr. Cibber as the
character of Lord Foppington from The
Careless Husband, c.1720. British
Museum, London.
Detail from Anon., A Macaroni Painter, or
Billy Dimple sitting for his Picture,
published by Bowles & Carver, 1772.
British Museum, London.
Detail from George Cruikshank, Lacing
in Style – or a Dandy Midshipman
preparing for attraction!!!, published by
Thomas Tegg, 6 March 1819. British
Museum, London.
The problem with decadence…is
that you can’t lace your own corset.
Tight Lacing, or Fashion
before Ease
This is a print about a
woman’s fashion extremes –
her determination to get the
season’s latest macaroni look,
even at the expense of her
own comfort.
Sound familiar?
Print after John Collet, Tight Lacing, or
Fashion before Ease, published by Bowles &
Carver, 1777. British Museum, London.
‘Affected’ by Fashion
The Omnipresent mirror
Fashionably HIGH hair
Excruciatingly tight corset
A Ladies maid
An African servant wearing a
turban and livery.
A groomed lapdog
An ‘exotic’ monkey
A suitor with a powdered wig
Parasol
“Chinoise” Vase
The text that the monkey points
to in the open book says:
“Fashions Victim a Satire”
Women and Fashion
Women were the subject of
numerous satires attacking the
follies of fashion.
Yet underneath the ridicule of
exaggerated hair and clothing
is, perhaps, a wider comment
on the excesses of the upper
classes. The visual distortions
are therefore a criticism on
these extremes.
But what does this mockery of
women say about how they
were perceived in society?
Anon., The Extravaganza, or the mountain
headdress of 1776, published 10 April 1776.
British Museum, London.
Anon., The Female Pyramid, published in the
Oxford Magazine, 1771. British Museum,
London.
Fashion Icon
One of the most influential women
on fashion during the 1770’s and
1780’s was Marie Antoinette.
Every woman wanted to emulate the
French queen who had notoriously
decadent taste – not only in fashion,
but also lifestyle.
Marie’s opulence did not go
unnoticed by the general public, and
she was regularly criticized for her
extravagance in the face of social
and political challenges in France.
Her follies would later be publicly
reprimanded – at the guillotine!
Elizabeth Vigee le Brun, Queen Marie
Antoinette of France, 1778. Kunsthistorisches
Museum, Vienna.
Appropriation:
The Collet print – a simple joke on contemporary
excesses of fashion – provided a useful metaphor
for a political satire by James Gillray. Gillray’s
print (also titled ‘Fashion before Ease’) likens the
influence of new egalitarian ideas on the
‘constitution’ of England, to the process of
squeezing a woman into a corset. Thus the most
popular Republican idealist of the time (Thomas
Paine) is shown forcing the buxom figure of
Britannia into a corset – and she is clearly
distressed.
The Fe-male
An English Gentleman
The English Gentleman in the 18th century
was not a fixed concept, and its notion was
interpreted in different ways. However, a
number of core qualities emerged:
Moderate
Reserved
Classically Educated
Pious
Fair and evenhanded
Trustworthy / Reliable
An extract from: Richard Braithwate, The
English gentleman containing sundry excellent
rules or exquisite observations, tending to
direction of every gentleman, of selecter ranke
and qualitie; how to demeane or accommodate
himselfe in the manage of publike or private
affaires, 1630. Cambridge University Library.
What is this my Son Tom
A father can’t believe his eyes, when
he meets his son, only to find him
dressed in the latest Macaroni
fashion. The poem beneath the print
reveals:
“Our wise Forefathers would express
Ev'n Sensibility in Dress ;
The modern Race delight to Shew
What Folly in Excess can do.
The honest Farmer come to town,
Can scarce believe his Son his own.
If thus the Taste continues Here,
What will it be another Year?”
Anon., What is this my Son Tom, published by
Robert Sayer, 24 June 1774. Library of
Congress, Washington DC.
“ Nor least, though last, that taper, thin, two legged
bagatelle—that soft faced, soft hearted thing, with a
great head, and nothing in it, thy well beloved
macaroni; for thee he dances, ogles, dresses ; for
thee he trips on tiptoe, limps like a sempstress,
skips upon carpets, and ambles round ladies'
knees ; for thee he quits his manhood, and is that
amphibious, despicable thing that we see him.
Great is thy empire О Fashion ! and great is thy
mischief: for thou leadest thy votaries astray—thou
leadest them to infamy, ruin and tears.”
The Juvenile Port-folio, and Literary Miscellany, edited by Thomas
Condie, (London, 1813), p.214.
The New and Improved Tom?
Tom greets his father a changed man. The farmer’s son
was once a simple rural lad and has now emerged from
the city a fully fledged macaroni. Notice:
His tall, powdered, feminine wig, topped with a
small corniced hat.
Expensive patterned costume
But also notice the fencing sword Tom carries, which
is smaller usual, and on which hangs a flower…little
explanation is needed for this metaphor!
The effeminacy of the Macaroni contributed to the
ambiguous nature of the disguise/character. Many men
used their Macaroni costume as a means of attracting
women…an attraction through emulation, it can be
argued.
The New and Improved Tom?
Macaronis derived much of their taste and behavior
from time spend on the Grand Tour.
The Grand Tour was an educational and cultural rite
of passage for all well-heeled young gentlemen, that
consisted of an extended visit to Europe - particularly
Paris Venice and Rome.
Whilst the trip was supposed to offer a classical
education on the ancient cultures of Europe (seen ‘first
hand), it soon became renowned as a play-boy’s
holiday, where men would act liberally without the
restraints of ‘home’.
Macaronis brought continental taste to the English
metropolis, and the mixture created an unusual hybrid,
that was relentlessly mimicked and caricatured.
Henry Bunbury, The St. James’s Macaroni,
published by J. Bretherton, 29 March 1772.
British Museum, London.
What is this my Son Tom
What a contrast between father and
son – roughness versus delicacy,
stocky versus slim build, Country
versus Urbane.
The father seems to be mocking his
son as he laughs holding his stomach,
and pointing to the small hat on his
son’s head.
Tom however, appears quite serious
in his appearance.
The underlying message of this print,
seems to be about the corruption of
innocence at the hands of the city – a
city that promotes and encourages the
“folly in excess” noted in the
accompanying poem.
Performing Opulence, or,
Celebrity
“In its complex relations between
highly theatricalized public
behavior and the print media, the
macaroni craze marked the nexus
between fashion, celebrity and
print culture that is a
distinguishing feature of modern
consumer society.”
(From An Oxford Companion to the Romantic
Age, Oxford University Press, 2001, p.506.)
So, are the Men and Women
Macaroni’s of the 18th century,
simply the equivalent to the
modern day Footballers and
WAG’s?…Think about it…
A Suggested response for Art Activity 5:
“Take two satirical prints produced between 1770 and 1830, with similar themes. Then compare
how each print has uniquely utilised humour, distortion, imagery and text to make specific social
and/or political comments”