The Company of Undertakers
Dublin Core
Title
The Company of Undertakers
Subject
Social satire, Medicine in art
Description
In The Company of Undertakers, Hogarth parodies the theme of medicine as a “noble” profession by creating a phony coat of arms emblazoned with the heads of physicians, all holding to their noses an attribute of their profession, a cane filled at the end with a medicinal sachet to cleanse foul vapors in the air. Using the official parlance of British heraldry, the caption describes the shield as “Beareth sable, an Urinal proper, between 12 Quack-Heads of the second and 12 Cane Heads Or, Consultant.” The title of the print is a deliberate misnomer, reinforced by the crossbones near the bottom and the motto, “Et plurima mortis imago,” or “and most an image of death.”
Creator
William Hogarth (1697-1764)
Source
[no text]
Publisher
Hogarth, London
Date
1736
Contributor
Debra Cashion, in collaboration with Elisabeth Barrett, '15
Rights
Relation
Format
Etching, engraving; original dimensions, 258 x 178 mm
Language
[no text]
Type
Still image
Identifier
[no text]
Coverage
[no text]
Files
Collection
Citation
William Hogarth (1697-1764), “The Company of Undertakers,” The Anatomist: Early Modern Medical Satire, accessed April 27, 2024, https://anatomist.omeka.net/items/show/14.