A scene from Horace Walpole's Gothic novel The castle of Otranto, with the character Manfred depicted full-length on the right, facing left with his arms out in front of him, a horrified expression on his face. He's watching six servants on the left hold an enormous black helmet topped with large black feathers; below the helmet a man lies on his back, blood on the ground surrounding his head. The castle stands in the background, with a low round tower and a crenellated wall immediately behind the figures and higher walls and towers rising in the middle distance
Description:
Title devised by cataloger., Signed and dated by the artist in ink in lower left corner., and Tipped in opposite page 4 in an extra-illustrated copy of: Walpole, H. The castle of Otranto. London : Printed for Tho. Lownds in Fleet-Street, MDCCLXV [1765].
Plate showing two helmets, one engraved above the other. The helmet at top, numbered "1" above, is a Venetian Morion shown in profile, with the figure of Acteon visible at its center immediately under the crest. The helmet at bottom, numbered "2" above, is of the burgonet kind
Description:
Title devised by cataloger., Imperfect; only the helmet engraved at top of plate is present, with the rest of the sheet trimmed away. Description based on more perfect impression., "Pl. 3.", Plate from: Grose, F. A treatise on ancient armour and weapons. London : Printed for S. Hooper, 1785 [1786]., Mounted on page 72 of Horace Walpole's extra-illustrated copy of his: A description of the villa of Mr. Horace Walpole. Strawberry Hill : Printed by Thomas Kirgate, 1784. See Hazen, A.T. Bibliography of the Strawberry Hill Press (1973 ed.), no. 30, copy 12., and Note in Thomas Kirgate's hand below image on mounting page: V. Appendix, page 96.
A scene from Horace Walpole's Gothic novel The castle of Otranto, with the character Theodore about to be executed in the courtyard of the castle. On the left, Theodore kneels down before the friar Jerome to pray, his shirt slipping down below his left shoulder to reveal the mark of a bloody arrow. Behind the friar stands Manfred, who ordered the execution, and several attendants; two guards holding pikes and a man carrying a sword stand behind the kneeling prisoner. At the far end of the courtyard on the right, the giant helmet sits in front of colonnades. In the background at center, the bordering colonnades are interrupted by a gray-colored section of the castle with arched windows and alcoves in which statues reside
Description:
Title devised by curator., Unsigned; artist not identified., Date of production supplied by curator., and Mounted opposite page 100 in an extra-illustrated copy of: Walpole, H. The castle of Otranto. Parma : Printed by Bodoni, for J. Edwards, London, MDCCXCI [1791].
Subject (Name):
Walpole, Horace, 1717-1797.
Subject (Topic):
Castles & palaces, Courtyards, Colonnades, Executions, Prayer, and Helmets
