Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

A vestal of -93, trying on the cestus of Venus / Js. Gy. desn. et fect.

Image not available
James Gillray
1756-1815

A vestal of -93, trying on the cestus of Venus / Js. Gy. desn. et fect.

Published

[London] : H. Humphrey, 1793.

hand colored aquatint
image: 29.9 x 36 cm; sheet: 30.5 x 38 cm
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1900.
Peel 2819
Notes
Trimmed to within plate mark.
Provenance

Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.

Summary

Three amoretti attend the toilet of an aged woman; 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.

Associated names
Gillray, James, 1756-1815, engraver.
Humphrey, Hannah, active 1774-1817, publisher.
Peel, Robert, 1788-1850, former owner.
Classification
Department