English Jesuit
Date1771
Publisher
Matthew Darly
(ca. 1720 - 1780)
Publisher
Mary Darly
(1760 - 1781)
Designer & engraver
M. Darly
OriginEngland, London
MediumHand-colored etching with line engraving
DimensionsOverall: 8 1/2 × 5 1/2in. (21.6 × 14cm)
Other (Plate): 6 × 4 1/4in. (6 × 4 1/4in.)
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number1955-62,19
DescriptionUpper right corner reads: "18"Lower margin reads: "THE ENGLISH JESUIT./ Pub.d according to Act of Parl.t by MDarly Oct 7.th 1771."
Label TextThe print is plate 18 from volume I of six volumes of Mary and Matthew Darly's "24 Caricatures by Several Ladies Gentleman Artists &c." It has been supposed that this caricature satirizes prime Minister William Petty, Earl of Shelburne, 1st Marquis Lansdowne (1737-1805) The man is shown in profile right, his head thrown back, and wearing a somewhat contemptuous scowl. His left-hand rests on a cane. He wears a low broad-brimmed hat, a tightly curled wig, buttoned coat, and gloves. This same figure appears in an engraving "Humility" (British Museum, 4795), without a publication line of any sort. The theory that the figure could William Petty is based the title, "Maladgrida, the Notorious Portuguese Jesuit," given to him in the PUBLIC ADVERTISER of Sept. 16th, 1767.
The Darly's were a husband-and-wife team capitalized on the craze for caricatures, the practice of making a likeness with exaggerated mannerisms or features to create a comic effect, a form that was brought back by aristocratic Britons who visited Italy on the Grand Tour. The Darly’s catered to this audience by publishing a prolific assortment of caricature prints during the 1770s. Many of the Darly's satirized the manners and fashions of the macaroni, a term used to describe a sub-culture of fashionably dressed men during the period, and subsequently, regardless of subject, the Darly's prints were known as "macaroni prints."
Their most famous work was their encyclopedic "Caricatures" which included prints of macaroni’s as well as other interesting characters, such as macaronis, all based on their own drawings and those submitted to them by amateur artists lambasting their friends, artists, and other figures in London life. The front page of Volume I describes them as “…a Series of Drol[l] Prints consisting of Heads, Figures, Conversations and Satires upon the follies of the Age…” These prints were published in groups of 24, in six volumes that were published between 1771 and 1773. Colonial Williamsburg owns volumes 1-3.
