The guardian-angel [graphic] / Js. Gillray inv. & ft.

"A travesty of Peters's 'An Angel carrying the Spirit of a Child to Paradise', exhibited R.A. 1783, in which the angel is a portrait of Isabella, Duchess of Rutland, and the figures have a background of clouds. Mrs. Fitzherbert, as the angel, flies upwards, her right. arm caressingly round a little girl, her left. pointing up to an irradiated and burlesqued altar, surrounded with cherub's heads, which recede in aerial perspective from the lower heads, which are fully characterized, to the upper ones, which are small. These angels are (l.) Windham, Grenville, Grey, Erskine, Grattan, and a (tiny and unrecognizable) Lord Holland. On the r. are Sheridan, Norfolk, Fox, Burdett, and Derby. [These identifications are by Lord Holland. They are self-evident, except Grattan who resembles Carlisle, or Jekyll, and has a profile completely unlike other portraits and caricatures. Wright and Evans give Stanhope for Windham and Carlisle for Grattan. Lord Holland is not characterized, and the identification can rest only on Gillray's statement.] The altar is lit by four large and guttering candles; over it, stiff and grotesque, are a Virgin and Child, 'La Sainte Veirge' [sic]. The head and hands of a demon emerge from a chalice which is flanked by vases of flowers. Three books surround the altar each open at a print: the Pope holding his cross and wearing a tiara; the many-headed Beast of Revelation (cf. BMSat 5534, &c); and a grotesque rendering of the Saint-Esprit, or dove of Pentecost. The rays, which descend towards Mrs. Fitzherbert, are inscribed 'Indulgences', 'Absolutions', 'Luxuries', 'Absolutions', 'Dissipations'. Mrs. Fitzherbert is a stout figure, whose realism is burlesqued by outspread wings and floating draperies. In her hair are three large plumes, emblem of the Prince of Wales; a cross hangs from her neck, a rosary flies outward. A large pouch inscribed 'Play-Things' is attached to her waist: from this hang a lighted censer and a rosary; from it project the head of a saint (burlesqued), a calvary in a bottle, a book: 'Brighton Breviary', a monstrance, St. Andrew holding his cross, a bunch of leaves. Mrs. Fitzherbert registers determined fanaticism; the little girl, childish devotion. They ascend between dark douds. Immediately below them (l.) is the Brighton Pavilion. ..."--British Museum online catalogue.