The Corsican Spider in His Web!
Thomas Rowlandson British
After George Murgatroyd Woodward British
Publisher Thomas Tegg British
Not on view
Woodward and Rowlandson here use a metaphor of consumption to present Napoleon at his most powerful. In July 1808, French armies completed their invasion of Spain. The emperor’s well-known profile and plumed bicorne hat are appended to a fat spider’s body inscribed "Unbounded Ambition." Sitting at the center of a large web, the spider-emperor prepares to eat two Spanish flies representing King Charles IV and his son Ferdinand, both forced to abdicate to clear the throne for Napoleon’s brother, Joseph Bonaparte. Other entangled flies are labeled "Austria," "Holland," "Hanover," "Prussia" and "Italy," each now a French puppet state. Portugal, in danger of being the next to fall, struggles along the outermost strand. The Russian fly and the Pope fly are lightly caught and express hopes of freeing themselves. Only the Turkish fly, in a jeweled turban, and the British fly, wearing the head of John-Bull, still evade the spider’s grasp.
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