File:A vestal of -93, trying on the cestus of Venus (BM J,3.75 1).jpg

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A vestal of -93, trying on the cestus of Venus   (Wikidata search (Cirrus search) Wikidata query (SPARQL)  Create new Wikidata item based on this file)
Artist

Print made by: James Gillray

Published by: Hannah Humphrey
Title
A vestal of -93, trying on the cestus of Venus
Description
English: The design resembles high relief or even a group modelled in the round, though beneath the title is etched: 'Engrav'd from a Basso-relievo, lately found upon some fragments of Antiquity'. Three amoretti attend the toilet of an aged hag; the cestus of Venus is a huge pad which one (left) ties round her waist, and another supports. A third (right) holds up an oval mirror which reflects the monstrous curve of the pad. She wears a small grotesque straw hat, from which hangs drapery reaching to the ground, with stays and under-petticoat; from a pocket protrudes 'Ovid Art [of Love]'. She crouches in profile to the right, her hands raised delightedly. Cupid, who ties the girdle, has a quiver of arrows which hangs reversed; his bow and arrow lie beside him. Behind (right) is an overturned altar of Venus, the fire still burning. Beneath the title:



'"Upon her fragrant breast the Zone was brac'd;
In it was ev'ry art, and ev'ry charm
To win the wisest, and the coldest warm.' 29 April 1793


Hand-coloured etching and aquatint
Depicted people Associated with: Lady Cecilia Johnston
Date 1793
date QS:P571,+1793-00-00T00:00:00Z/9
Medium paper
Dimensions
Height: 310 millimetres
Width: 377 millimetres
institution QS:P195,Q6373
Current location
Prints and Drawings
Accession number
J,3.75
Notes

(Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VII, 1942) A satire on the 'pads' which became fashionable in 1793, see BMSat 8388, &c. The vestal is identified as Lady Cecilia Johnston, but the nut-cracker profile has no resemblance to her conspicuously receding forehead and chin.

Grego, 'Gillray', p. 175. Wright and Evans, No. 394. Reprinted, 'G. W.G.', 1830.
Source/Photographer https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_J-3-75
Permission
(Reusing this file)		 © The Trustees of the British Museum, released as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
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Public domain

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This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1929.

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current19:12, 15 May 2020Thumbnail for version as of 19:12, 15 May 20202,500 × 2,031 (622 KB)Copyfraud (talk | contribs)British Museum public domain uploads (Copyfraud/BM) Satirical prints in the British Museum 1793 image 2 of 2 #10,743/12,043

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