The English Jesuit
Not on view
This image comes from a set of twenty-four caricatures that Matthew and Mary Darly published in 1771. A husband-and-wife team, the Darlys developed a new British print genre--small etched caricatures of single figures against plain backgrounds, their identities indicated through dress, pose and a few props. Many of these works mocked the fashionable manners of contemporary London dandies called "macaronis," and the Darly's wares soon became known as macaroni prints no matter what their subjects. The implied Italian connection was in fact appropriate, since the basic form was inspired by Ghezzi's caricature drawings brought back from Rome by Grand Tourists. The form and subjects adapted by the Darlys tickled British tastes and broadened the scope of Ghezzi's works to include a range of social classes, known figures, and types. This etched satire of a man with a hat and cane resembles both William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne or Sir Nash Grose (see plate no. 17). Shelburne had been nicknamed Malagrida, in the Public Advertiser on Sept. 16, 1767, after a notorious Portuguese Jesuit, which makes him the more likely subject.
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