"A Cognocenti Contemplating ye Beauties of ye Antique" was first published on February 11, 1801.
It is a biting personal parody of the renowned British diplomat, archaeologist, and art collector Sir William Hamilton. The print mocks Hamilton’s obsession with classical antiquities while he remained famously "blind" to his young wife, Emma Hamilton, having a very public, scandalous love affair with naval hero Lord Horatio Nelson.
Gillray packs the print with visual double entendres where Hamilton's collection directly broadcasts his status as a cuckold. Hamilton is shown old and bent, peering at his collection through spectacles held upside down and reversed—literalizing his blindness to his domestic reality. He stares directly at a broken classical bust labeled "Lais" (a famous ancient Greek courtesan). The face is deliberately sculpted to resemble his wife, Emma, but the tip of the nose is broken off.
Beside the bust is a headless statue of a Bacchante holding grapes, mimicking the famous "Attitudes" (living statue poses) that Emma performed to entertain high-society guests. On the back wall hang paired contemporary portraits:"Mark Antony" depicts Lord Nelson surrounded by sea battles."Cleopatra" depicts Lady Hamilton holding a gin bottle with her dress falling down."Claudius" depicts Sir William himself, placed in a frame topped with prominent cuckold's horns.
An image of an erupting Mount Vesuvius in the background references Hamilton's scientific treatises on volcanoes, while simultaneously poking fun at the explosive passion of the lovers. Sir William Hamilton, Emma, and Nelson had all just arrived back in London together from Naples in late 1800.
Rather than causing a duel, the three lived together in an amicable, public ménage à trois. Gillray used his razor-sharp wit to ensure the London public could laugh at the elderly connoisseur who could appreciate the beauty of a broken ancient relic but could not see what was happening right under his nose.
Gillray was one of five children, and the only one to survive to maturity. In 1770 he was apprenticed to Harry Ashby, a London writing in engraver, and five years later W. Humphrey published a few of Gillray's illustrations including satirical works. By the time Gillray commenced his career satire was old, but personal caricature was in its infancy. Other exponents in this form of art were soon overshadowed by Gillray's superior craftsmanship.
His figures were full of vitality, titillating and reflective of some political crisis or private scandal. As his popularity increased so did demand by the public to see more of his work. In the rapidly changing politics of the late18th century he would produce a plate in twenty-four hours. Although sometimes overlooked his speech bubbles were elaborate and Gillray would spend considerable time composing and redrafting the text.
Between 1791 to 1807 his career continued successfully in association with William and Hannah Humphrey. There after Gillray's health began to suffer. He eventually slipped into madness and died shortly before the Battle of Waterloo on June 1st 1815. Hannah, who had a close relationship with him nursed Gillray through out his final years and following his death the copper plates then formed part of Hannah's estate when she died in 1818.
The executors of Hannah's estate sold Gillray's painstakingly worked plates for there second hand copper weight. Hearing of this, the then publisher, Bohn who had previously expressed an interest in buying the plates set about purchasing them from a variety of different sources, eventually acquiring over 500. In 1851 Bohn republished the engravings in a large folio volume, "The Works of James Gillray".
