Art Institute of Chicago

Dilettanti-Theatricals

James Gillray (English, 1756-1815)

Date

published February 18, 1803

Medium

Hand-colored etching and aquatint on paper

Culture

England

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

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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