Regency Rowlandson: Thomas Rowlandson's studies after (long after) the Antique.

Extract

---

Regency Rowlandson: Thomas Rowlandson's studies after (long after) the Antique.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

From around 1815 to 1820, that is, towards the end of a long and prolific artistic career as the most stylish and witty graphic chronicler of the antics of Georgian England, Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827) produced a large corpus of drawings that were earmarked for two quite different artistic projects. One was a group of drawings he called 'comparative anatomy', the other was of 'sketches of the antique'. Although humour routinely hones Rowlandson's observations and inflects his facile draftsmanship, in both of these projects an uncanny academic seriousness is a factor in his approach. Many of the drawings are annotated with comments that he gleaned from a wide range of published sources, suggesting that the two enterprises were more in the nature of personal investigations than potentially marketable entertainments. Neither project culminated in a publication, although Rowlandson did design a frontispiece illustrated with an assortment of skulls titled Comparative Anatomy; resemblances between the Countenance of Men and Beasts, implying that that was his intention. More dubious is what he had in mind for his sketches of the antique.

The two projects are in a sense complementary in that one is focused on nature, the other on works of art. The studies in comparative anatomy (1) are primarily (but not exclusively) an assemblage of drawings that humorously juxtapose the visages of animals and of humans. The studies after the Antique, which are a curious counterpart to these physiognomic comparisons, are a collection of drawings of classical statuary, bas-reliefs, vases, scenic masks, chariots, candelabras, and other ornaments, as well as some few works of Egyptian origin. Certain of the studies, however, belong to the realms of both comparative physiognomy and of ancient art: these are mythic representations of human/animal hybridity, underscoring that such ostensibly polar projects are in essence closely related and that the commonality of animal and human nature (a medley of instinct and reason) is the underpinning of even the most idealized works of art.

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

This essay addresses the more puzzling of Rowlandson,s projects--his drawings of ancient works of art. Hitherto these studies have only been considered in terms of whether they were drawn from original antique statuary, or if they were copied from published engravings. My focus here shifts to Rowlandson's interest and involvement with the art of antiquity, aiming to put his large corpus of anomalous drawings of ancient statuary and ornaments, and a number of related caricatures in which antiquity and statuary play a major role, into the fuller artistic and historical context of the Regency period. These drawings can be seen as a conduit to a range of ideas not only about the prevailing ma...

See the full content of this document

---