THE
ANALYSIS
OF
BEAUTY.
Written with a view of fixing the fluctuating Ideas of
TASTE.
BY WILLIAM HOGARTH.
So vary'd he, and of his tortuous train
Curl'd many a wanton wreath, in sight of Eve
To lure her eye.—— Milton.
LONDON:
Printed by J. REEVES for the AUTHOR,
And Sold by him at his House in Leicester-fields.
MDCCLIII.
PREFACE.
If a preface was ever necessary, it may very likelybe thought so to the following work; the title ofwhich (in the proposals publish'd some time since)hath much amused, and raised the expectation of thecurious, though not without a mixture of doubt, thatits purport could ever be satisfactorily answered. Forthough beauty is seen and confessed by all, yet, fromthe many fruitless attempts to account for the cause ofits being so, enquiries on this head have almost beengiven up; and the subject generally thought to be amatter of too high and too delicate a nature to admit ofany true or intelligible discussion. Something thereforeintroductory ought to be said at the presenting a workwith a face so entirely new; especially as it will naturallyencounter with, and perhaps may overthrow,several long received and thorough establish'd opinions:and since controversies may arise how far, and afterwhat manner this subject hath hitherto been consider'dand treated, it will also be proper to lay before thereader, what may be gathered concerning it, from theworks of the ancient and modern writers and painters.
It is no wonder this subject should have so longbeen thought inexplicable, since the nature of manyparts of it cannot possibly come within the reach ofmere men of letters; otherwise those ingenious gentlemen[Pg iv]who have lately published treatises upon it (andwho have written much more learnedly than can beexpected from one who never took up the pen before)would not so soon have been bewilder'd in their accountsof it, and obliged so suddenly to turn into thebroad, and more beaten path of moral beauty; in orderto extricate themselves out of the difficulties they seemto have met with in this: and withal forced for thesame reasons to amuse their readers with amazing (butoften misapplied) encomiums on deceased painters andtheir performances; wherein they are continually discoursingof effects instead of developing causes; andafter many prettinesses, in very pleasing language, dofairly set you down just where they first took you up;honestly confessing that as to grace, the main point inquestion, they do not even pretend to know any thingof the matter. And indeed how should they? when itactually requires a practical knowledge of the whole artof painting (sculpture alone not being sufficient) andthat too to some degree of eminence, in order to enableany one to pursue the chain of this enquiry through allits parts: which I hope will be made to appear in thefollowing work.
It will then naturally be asked, why the best painterswithin these two centuries, who by their works appearto have excelled in grace and beauty,