Cantor Arts Center

The Reward of Cruelty

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The Reward of Cruelty

1751
18th C.
Europe, England
19 15/16 x 16 5/8 in. (50.6 x 42.3 cm) (sheet)

By (primary)
William Hogarth English, 1697–1764

Medium: Etching with engraving

Credit Line: Gift of H. E. Pearson

Accession Number: 1989.126

Object Label

Elizabeth Kathleen Mitchell, Ph.D., Burton and Deedee McMurtry Curator and Director of the Curatorial Fellowship Program, Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University:
This print was inspired by the design of an illustration to a text by anatomist Andreas Vesalius (Flanders, 1514–1564) in the Cantor collection (2012.591.a). It presents the end of character Tom Nero, who had been executed by hanging for murdering his pregnant girlfriend. England’s Murder Act of 1751 mandated that criminals executed for murder could not be buried. Furthermore, anatomists could take any bodies not claimed by family. The title suggests that dissection, witnessed by students and indifferent onlookers who paid admission, is the criminal’s final and true punishment. Hogarth attended dissections and, when he ran a drawings studio, engaged surgeon William Hunter (1718–1783) to instruct his students.

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This object is a member of the following portfolios:

Anatomy and Medicine in Prints and Drawings, 1490-1990

Artists and Anatomists

European Art

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Last updated: 01/26/2021

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