Satan, Sin and Death (A Scene from Milton's `Paradise Lost')

This painting of Satan, Sin, and Death from Milton's Paradise Lost, around 1735, at the Tate, represents Hogarth's ambitious but less successful attempt at the "grand manner" of history painting. The English public and critics preferred his satirical genre scenes to these literary subjects. Hogarth's oil technique combined firm linear clarity for his satirical figure groups with warm, painterly handling in the flesh tones of his portraits, demonstrating his equal mastery of the academic and...

The dramatic confrontation between Satan and Death, with Sin intervening, is rendered with theatrical lighting and dynamic composition. Hogarth's characteristically robust figure painting brings physical conviction to the supernatural subject.