Marriage A-la-Mode: 5, The Bagnio

This is the fifth scene of Hogarth’s series of six paintings titled Marriage A-la-Mode. After the masquerade, the Countess and her lover Silvertongue have taken a room above the Turk’s Head – a Turkish baths, or Bagnio. The scene is set at night by firelight; the Countess’s hooped underskirt, whalebone corset, fashionable shoes and mask have been discarded on the floor beside the rumpled four-poster bed.

The Earl has burst into the room and been fatally stabbed by Silvertongue, who now flees in his nightshirt out of the open window. The Countess falls to her knees before her husband and begs for his mercy, two tears glistening on her cheek. As death overcomes the Earl, the syphilitic black spot on his neck is as conspicuous as ever. The proprietor of the Turk’s Head bursts in to investigate the cause of the commotion. He has summoned a constable who carries his staff of office and a night watchman with his lantern held aloft.

Text: © The National Gallery, London

Painting photographed in its frame by Google Arts and Culture, 2023.