Art Institute of Chicago
Dilettanti-Theatricals
James Gillray (English, 1756-1815)LinkedCulture matchlcp-a63a9c259445
- Date
- published February 18, 1803
- Medium
- Hand-colored etching and aquatint on paper
- Culture
- England
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Object ID
- 90001
While ancient theater has continued to inspire the modern world, satirist James Gillray leaves little doubt as to the caliber of the performers seen here. The Muses of theater, Thalia and Melpomene, are invoked on panels of the dressing room screen along with Cecilia, the patron saint of music, the composer George Frideric Handel, the playwright William Shakespeare, and the actor David Garrick. The fierce Melpomene indeed looks rather like Lady Macbeth, with a dagger and a chalice raised above her head as if to pounce on the amateur theatricals trilling and carousing below.
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Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- Gift of Thomas F. Furness in memory of William McCallin McKee
Linked open data
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- Object type
- AAT300041273
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