Dilettanti-Theatricals
published February 18, 1803
Medium
Hand-colored etching and aquatint on paper
Dimensions
Image: 30 × 48.5 cm (11 13/16 × 19 1/8 in.); Plate: 31.5 × 49.2 cm (12 7/16 × 19 3/8 in.); Sheet: 35.5 × 54 cm (14 × 21 5/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
90001
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
While ancient theater has continued to inspire the modern world, satirist James Gillray leaves little doubt as to the caliber of the performers seen here. The Muses of theater, Thalia and Melpomene, are invoked on panels of the dressing room screen along with Cecilia, the patron saint of music, the composer George Frideric Handel, the playwright William Shakespeare, and the actor David Garrick. The fierce Melpomene indeed looks rather like Lady Macbeth, with a dagger and a chalice raised above h...