The Analysis of Beauty

English artist William Hogarth (1697–1764) is most famous for his satirical caricatures and moral paintings, the forerunners of cartoons. In this instructive volume, the august painter and engraver discusses and illustrates the use of serpentine lines in the expression of grace and beauty. Hogarth defines six qualities — fitness, variety, regularity, simplicity, intricacy, and quantity — and dramatizes their effective combination in images that employ S-shaped lines.
Originally published in...