Here lies an engraving by a Painter, writer and (most importantly) a pictorial satirist William Hogarth, the famous 18th century artist who specialised in "painting and engraving modern moral subjects ... to treat my subjects as a dramatic writer; my picture was my stage", as he himself remarked in his manuscript notes.
Wilkes is seen holding on the end of his staff the cap of liberty, a soft cap worn by Roman slaves who had been freed by their masters. In the eighteenth century, the cap became associated with radical politics and later featured strongly in images of the French Revolution. Hogarth has portrayed Wilkes as a grinning fool, with devilish horns and the cap suspended above his head as if it were a halo. Why this unflattering image? Hogarth and Wilkes had quarrelled, and this was Hogarth’s revenge.
As it seems that William Hogarth is one of the main historical Pinoneers of satire, I think I shall be looking up more of his works along with Michael Moore.
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