Romantic Circles Gallery
Gallery Editors:
Theresa M. KelleyJacob Leveton
 "Plate 57" features seven illustrations to accompany Book III of A Compleat System of Opticks, which describes the science behind a variety of optical and image-making machines, including a... 1738 |
 c. 1824-25 |
 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 |
 In this print, Corinthian Tom’s tailor, Mr. Primefit, has come to Corinthian House to fit Jerry Hawthorn for a new suit. Jerry stands in the center, his back to the viewer, while Mr. Primefit... 31 August 1820 |
 Abraham kneels on a flat plain before three winged angels who stand conversing among themselves. Some hills and trees stand in the distance, and the sky is furrowed with thick, wavy lines that... 1782 |
 This foldout guide to the "Moving Diorama of Venice" is divided into three large panels showing a series of "highlight" views of Venice, as if seen from a passing gondola. Ignoring the distance that... 1841 |
 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 |
 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 |
 A large stone stela, facing forward, depicts a Maya deity decorated with myriad visual embellishments, its fists clenched upon its chest. The background depicts the small clearing in which the stela... Delineator: Catherwood, Frederick 1841 |
 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 |
 George III is portrayed as Prospero the wizard in his long black cloak, holding a book bearing the words “justice” and “integrity” and a long, whip-like wand. He stands on a landmass labeled “Albion... 11 August 1798 |
 Two cocks are fighting on the left side of the cockpit; one foot of each feeder is visible at opposite ends of the fighting table, (usually constructed as a large table enclosed by a raised rim of... Delineator: Hogarth, William 5 November 1759 |
 The Spectator implied by this design "is supposed to be in the Car of the Balloon, suspended above the Center of the View." From this vantage point, he/she looks down on a vast "Amphitheatre... 5 January 1786 |
 c. 1800 |
 Writing in Airopaidia: Containing the Narrative of a Balloon Excursion (1786), Thomas Baldwin describes this view as "taken in a high Field, at the End of Sutton-Causeway," while... 5 January 1786 |
 c. Early 19th century |
 At the corner of Little Maddox Street and New Bond Street, a smirking and red-cheeked Lord Sandwich approaches from behind and fondles a young barrow woman selling carrots. The woman’s body is... Delineator: Gillray, James 3 December 1796 |
 Page thirty-two displays eight views from the ruined ground of Pevensey Castle. All images are black and white wood prints. Editor: Knight, Charles c. Early 19th century |
 An antiquarian holds up his spectacles in his right hand to examine an object that resembles an Egyptian mummy. He stoops and holds a cane in his left hand, a tri-corner hat under his arm. He is... 1789 |
 Lady Cecilia Johnstone is in profile, seated on a large golden chamber pot. Her brow is slightly furrowed and her gaze intensely focused. She rests her chin in her hand, her elbow propped upon her... Delineator: Gillray, James 19 September 1791 |
 Trees line the foreground of this image and follow a pavement to a house, The Briars, in the distance. The Briars sits at the middle of the image: it is a fair-sized house with two floors. In the... 1845 |
 “The balloon over Helsbye-Hill in Chester, at half past II on Thursday the 8th of September, 1785. It is seen in the southwest quarter. The view was taken in a high field, at the end of Sutton-... Delineator: Stothard, Thomas, Newton, R. 1 May 1786 |
 Dorothy George describes this print as follows:
A good-looking young woman, looking down and to the r., holds by two strings a jointed puppet (a pantin, a toy for ladies in vogue in the... Delineator: Cruikshank, Isaac 9 December 1818 |
 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 |
 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 |
 Dr. Syntax sits on his horse at the center of the engraving, holding an open sketchbook and pen; an open umbrella appears to be tucked under his arm. A local fisherman and his dog stand behind him;... 1 May 1812 |
 Depicting roughly 35 miles of the Eifel mountain range, this topographic map is color coded to indicate rock type. Volcanoes are depicted by sets of lines, each which culminates in a circle to... 1832 |
 A man, apparently one of the “Esquimaux,” stands in the right quarter of the frame with a club on his shoulder, looking directly at the artist/viewer. He is on a beach. Against the foggy sky in the... Delineator: Back, Sir George 1828 |
 On this album page, a hand-colored engraving images three kinds of flowering plants. Miniscule numbers are placed beside each of three, with the numbers keyed to the plants’ names and their... |
 c. 1816-17 |
 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 |
 1824 |
 In the immediate foreground of the picture plane is a herd of sheep. The sheep are reclining on the ground in manner that suggests that they have either been struck dead or are sleeping. Only several... Engraver: Wallis, Robert 1829 |
 “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 |
 The façade of a brick structure—with a sidewall jutting out to form a kind of corner—and a tree with a serpentine trunk take up the right half of the oval-shaped image. Light shining through the... 1800 |
 The pyramid at El Tajín is shown in three-quarter view. It is a step-pyramid with six levels and a staircase leading from the ground to the top platform. The sky is blank over a completely flat... 1804 |
 A man and two children stand in the doorway of a small wooden structure. Hovering over the structure are three beings with fin-like wings on their backs. The furthest flying figure (in the background... 1783 |
 This illustration depicts a rough image of Earth, which is shown floating in black space that grows misty near the edges. Europe is white, while everything "east," as well as Australia, is colored a... 1839 |
 "Fig. 1," the image on the right, depicts a petrified ("incrustated") skull. "Fig. 2" depicts a sword, also petrified. Delineator: Rymsdyk, Jan van 1791 |
 Dr. Syntax is in the center of the print, sitting on an overturned washtub and drawing in his sketchbook. In front of him to the left are a bevy of farm animals, including Syntax’s own donkey,... 1 May 1812 |
 1821 |
 To the left, two trees stand out among a small copse; their branches extend along the uppermost border of the sketch, framing the scene. The Abbey itself rests in the right half of the sketch,... 1782 |
 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, Plate 18 of Bell's illustrations, depicts the semicircular canals of the ear. Bell further describes the image: "The cochlea is named by its similitude to the shell of a snail. It is the... 1830s |
 Dr. Syntax sits on the right-hand side of the back row in the pit, alongside a critic and a wit (Combe 223). He and his fellow theater-goers face the unfolding drama on the stage: two men battle over... Delineator: Rowlandson, Thomas 1 May 1812 |
 This image, Plate 16 of Bell's illustrations, depicts the inner ear. Bell describes it as such: "These are the mastoid cells. They are thought to strengthen the effect of the sound, by reverberating... 1830s |
 These images depict the European landscape in 1832 as shaped by a Laacher See eruption. In the upper left corner, a farmer is plowing his field with the help of a mule. The village of Eich is... Delineator: Hibbert-Ware, Charlotte 1832 |
 "Fig. 1" depicts a piece of coral shaped like a hand, while figure "2" features a glass tumbler that appears partially petrified. 1791 |
 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 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 |
