James Gillray: The Art of Caricature

Shakespeare - Sacrificed; - or - The Offering to Avarice (9)

Area 9

This is a small but telling detail which appears in the background of all three of the prints highlighted in this part of the website: a classical temple on a mountain. This is probably intended as Mount Helicon, in Greek mythology the sacred hill of the Muses. Gillray is suggesting a complete betrayal of the literary and artistic values which the subjects of his prints - in this case John Boydell - ought to have been defending.

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Detail from James Gillray, Shakespear -Sacrificed; -or- The Offering to Averice. Published 20 June 1789. Courtsey of The British Museum, London.