Untitled c. 1730 - 1735

Here we see an engraving by William Hogarth, capturing a scene rife with early 18th-century social commentary. Justice is enthroned, seemingly more interested in commerce than equity, and the central tableau presents a marriage contract, a transaction, underscored by the coins being exchanged. Consider the scales of justice, traditionally emblems of impartiality. Here, they're absent, replaced by a ledger, symbolizing a perversion of legal integrity. This motif echoes across time. Think of ancient Egyptian depictions of the weighing of the heart, where truth and justice were literally measured. But here, in Hogarth's London, it's reduced to monetary value. The dog begging near the seated figure embodies a grotesque mimicry of supplication, a commentary on the debasement of genuine piety. These symbols, deeply embedded in our collective memory, trigger subconscious recognition. Hogarth, like many artists, taps into these primal images, revealing how societal values can be distorted, yet resonate across generations. It is a cycle of moral decay and artistic response that repeats through history, evolving yet fundamentally unchanged.