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1955-62,52, Print
The Shuffling Macaroni
1955-62,52, Print

The Shuffling Macaroni

Date1772
Publisher Matthew Darly (ca. 1720 - 1780)
Publisher Mary Darly (1760 - 1781)
Publisher M. Darly
OriginEngland, London
MediumHand-colored etching and line engraving
DimensionsOverall: 8 9/16 × 5 1/2in. (21.7 × 14cm) Other (Plate): 7 1/4 × 5in. (18.4 × 12.7cm)
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number1955-62,52
DescriptionUpper right corner reads: "1"
Text above figure reads: "Who calls me a Macaroni."
Below figure reads: "J. H. fecit"
Lower margin reads: "THE SHUFFLING MACARONI. / Pub..d by MDarly April 2.d 1772 accor to Act (39) Strand"
Label TextThis is the first plate from volume III of six volumes of Mary and Matthew Darly's "Macaronis, Characters, Caricatures &c." Above him reads the words "Who calls me a Macaroni." The engraving is signed by the unidentified maker "J.H. fecit."

The Darly's were a husband-and-wife team who capitalized on the craze for caricatures: the practice of making a likeness with exaggerated mannerisms or features to create a comic effec. This form 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.