The Four Stages of Cruelty: The Reward of Cruelty
Dublin Core
Title
The Four Stages of Cruelty: The Reward of Cruelty
Subject
morality, cruelty, culture, enlightenment, medicine, crime
Description
The subject, Nero, has been hanged for his crimes. His body has been donated to anatomists for public dissections. A crowd gathers as surgeons take him apart. The dominating figure above oversees the spectacle, his role as chief surgeon or high judge somewhat blurry. In the left corner, the bones of others are being boiled down to make pharmaceutical cures, while an emaciated dog nips at the intestines for scraps as a figure gathers them in the right-hand corner. Notably, Nero's corpse still betrays expressions of horror and pain.
Creator
William Hogarth
Source
Original - Fourth plate in Hogarth's Four Stages of Cruelty engraved series; Online - The last entry in the online coverage by Tate Modern on Hogarth's Four Stages of Cruelty
Publisher
Tate Modern
Date
1 February 1751
Contributor
Rachel Seiler Smith
Rights
Courtesy Andrew Edmunds, London
Format
File - JPEG; Original - Etching and engraving, 320 x 380 mm
Language
English
Type
Engraving; Still Image
Identifier
Coverage
eighteenth century
Files
Citation
William Hogarth, “The Four Stages of Cruelty: The Reward of Cruelty,” Enlightenmens, accessed March 22, 2023, http://enlightenmens.lmc.gatech.edu/items/show/3.