Romantic Circles Gallery
Gallery Editors:
Theresa M. KelleyJacob Leveton
 The poem’s narrator gazes upon the ruins of Pompeii and imagines what took place on the date of the eruption. The narrator describes a crowded street that is instantly engulfed in a cloud of ash... 1848 |
 The Chronometer and Planetarium System plate is accompanied by an explanatory key on the preceding two pages of the text. Most of the bottom of the print is taken up by Fig. 5, a rectangular... 1791 |
 1815 |
 Dorothy George describes this print:
A complicated piece of machinery fills the centre of a room in a fashionable establishment; an open door (r.) leads into a shop where, in the... 1828 |
 A single large pyramid stands covered in vegetation, crowned by a small, exposed temple. The pyramid is surrounded by a variety of trees and bushes, and is fronted by a small clearing. Two men stand... Delineator: Norman, Benjamin Moore 1843 |
 The image shows a young man in profile, lying with his eyes closed, knees slightly bent, on a bed with its curtain pushed to one side. In front, next to the bed, a book lies open, face-down, on the... 1836 |
 At the forefront of the image is a horse-drawn buggy carrying a cannon, which is stuck in the snow. Two horses appear to have been pulling the buggy; however, one of them has fallen over. The other... Delineator: Cruikshank, George 1828 |
 c. 1800-01 |
 Doctor Syntax and the bookseller occupy the center of the piece. Syntax gestures demonstratively at his travel journal while the bookseller looks upward. To the left, the bookseller’s wife is seated... 1 May 1812 |
 View of Mottram depicts the village of Mottram in Cheshire. 16 July 1794 |
 The image portrays a sea dark with swells—no whitecaps—interrupted by large, sharp-edged, wildly-shaped icebergs that have been carved out at their bases by the incessant motion of the waves. Two... Delineator: Back, Sir George 1828 |
 Here, on one of the four engraved and hand-colored pages interspersed among the blank pages of the Floral Album, the engraver has pictured a wreath of flowers formed from pink roses, blue... |
 This print is taken from the final plate of the pamphlet, and depicts in eleven figures the proposed mechanism of the chess player. The figures do not represent a chronological progression, but... 1826 |
 1824 |
 This image depicts the Battle of Lodi. The French army takes up the forefront and majority of the image. There is a distinct gap between the Austrians and the French on the bridge, further clarifying... Delineator: Cruikshank, George 10 May 1823 |
 Engraver: Daniell, Thomas 1795 |
 Within a rocky landscape is situated a large, cave-like dwelling constructed of leaves and branches. Six adult figures and two small children sit or squat around a smoky fire, while two additional... 1807 |
 Art historian Pramod Chandra describes this scene:
A lady, who has taken her seat opposite the craftsmen, is trying on bangles. The various tools of the trade are laid out before the man... 1800 |
 A view of the ruins of Uxmal depicts the House of the Nuns (on the left) and the House of the Dwarf (on the right). The House of the Nuns is a short, wide, one-story building with a series of small... Delineator: Catherwood, Frederick 1841 |
 1824 |
 c. 1810 |
 The four-stepped, low-rising Pyramid of Cholula, covered in sparse vegetation, stands in a flat valley, surrounded by distant mountains. A stairway leads up from the base of the pyramid to the small... Delineator: Humboldt, Alexander von 1816 |
 Various ships are visible in the distance, and one ship in full sail sits directly beyond the coastal waters. Three poles emerge from the sea in the left foreground, indicating the shoreline; the... 1823 |
 Lucifer and his fellow angels are cast out of Heaven, falling into a deep chasm with sheer rock walls textured by what appears to be tree roots. The chasm is illuminated by light from the opening... 1826 |
 This plate offers seven profiles (or cross-sections) of fragments of the coast of north-west America, as if seen from a passing ship or small boat, which range from Cape Mendocino (the westernmost... Delineator: Skyes, J., Alexander, William 1798 |
 The engraving depicts an Aeolian harp (the topmost image); it also includes several scientific diagrams indicating how the harp might function. 1781 |
 The image depicts a momument, inscribed with an epitaph, in two parts: the topmost figure appears to be the top of a momument, while the figure below it may be the base. The upper part is decorated... 1834 |
 The illustration in the bottom left corner of this image, Imitation and Approbation, features a caped man standing behind a table on a stage. In his hands he holds a skull marked by a... Delineator: Cruikshank, George 1 August 1826 |
 1812 |
 At least fourteen ships are engaged in battle. Dark smoke billows up from the surface of the water on the left horizon line, spreading to either side of the sky and obscuring the entire top of the... 1831 |
 c. Early 19th century |
 1787 |
 This image depicts the ruins of Hadleigh Castle, near Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. The two remaining towers of the castle stand in the left register of the picture place, a scrawny tree between them. In the... Engraver: Lucas, David 1832 |
 Engraver: Daniell, Thomas 1795 |
 “Plate XVII” features ten figures that accompany a section of the text discussing optical illusions and tricks. Figures 52 and 53 depict an illusion using decanters of water and a concave mirror.... 1803 |
 Goodrich Castle sits atop a massive hill, which is partially covered in trees (to the left of the ruins) and partially eroded (bare rock forms the base of the hill directly below the castle). To the... 1782 |
 In this image, the French army attempts to cross the Alps during the Napoleonic Wars. Front and center in the image is an Asian man sitting on a boulder. Leading away from him are the caravans of... Delineator: Cruikshank, George 13 December 1814 |
 In this etching, a young woman and man who are courting make music together. The woman plays a harp and leans over to read the music from the music book that the young man is holding. They both... 1805 |
 The art historian Pramod Chandra describes this miniature as follows:
[T]he man, seated on a chair, listens to a group of musicians squatting on a striped blue carpet. He is attended by... 1870 |
 A bank of thick clouds hovers over the standing stones, with sunlight shining through to illuminate the center of the monument. A flock of sheep grazes in the foreground on the course grass, some... Engraver: Wallis, Robert 1829 |
 Dr. Syntax visits the home of a Lord for dinner. Seated in large chairs around a large circular table are three other men, one of which is Sir John as the accompanying text names. They are all well... Delineator: Rowlandson, Thomas 1 May 1812 |
 1803 |
 The empress of the moths, a saturnia pavonia minor, perches on a leaf. She is reading her visitor's book. The emperor, a male of the same species, sits on the branch facing her. To their left, in the... 1831 |
 The image is divided down the center of the page into two parts. On the left, a man holds an axe over his head, preparing to chop at the base of a tree. There is a severed tree limb lying on the... 1829 |
 This image presents the same view as the first in the gallery, with some alterations (the over-slip attached to the illustration constituted by these two images has been lifted). We still have a view... Collaborator: Repton, John Adey 1 February 1816 |
 The engraving depicts the exterior of the “Old Ashmolean” building at the University of Oxford. We see it at a slight distance, with a good view of the street on which it is stationed. Three figures... Delineator: MacKenzie, Frederick 1 December 1834 |
 This map of Vesuvius is color-coded to indicate the various routes of lava flows traced during Vesuvius’ major eruptions from 1631. Palo, the larger cone, is marked with every lava flow (colored red... 1833 |
 A man, imprisoned, sits in the corner of a cell next to a barred window through which two figures stare. The captive wears a large brimmed hat, long curled wig, and cravat, which date the sitter to... 1819 |
 The landscape contains a winding river that passes by a group of ruined castles in the distance. In the foreground is a mass of trees on the left and groups of bushes and small trees in the center... 1770 |
 The image shows a man lying on a bed, his hands folded in a gesture of prayer. He faces the upper left corner of the picture, where two angels descend towards him on a stream of light. In front of... 1816 |
