William Hogarth

Analyse der Schönheit (The Analysis of Beauty)
VOLUME 132

The Long-Awaited New Translation of Hogarth’s Classic

In the German-speaking world, William Hogarth’s study was an overlooked classic of the eighteenth-century aesthetic theory. The Analysis of Beauty was only published unabridged once in German in 1754. Now—almost 250 years later—this FUNDUS edition offers an entirely new translation. Unfiltered by its reception via German Idealism, the book can now be read in all its baroque abundance. Like the Wunderkammern of its time, it presents machines and angels, anatomy and caricatures, antiquities and morals. It teaches principles of line work and attempts a theory of theater and dance. The significance of this deliberate disregard for disciplinary boundaries can perhaps only be fully appreciated in light of contemporary art’s post-medium condition. Hogarth thus proves to be a truly unclassical classic.

With an afterword by the author, art historian, and media scholar Peter Bexte. New German translation based on the edition authorized by Hogarth.

William Hogarth (b. 1697 London; d. 1764 London) was a socially critical English painter and printmaker. Born to a poor Latin teacher, he first apprenticed as a silver and copper engraver before eventually studying painting. The moralist Hogarth is considered the first outstanding English painter of international renown. The Analysis of Beauty was first published in 1753.