A satire on the financial crisis of 1720 ... Time draws back the curtain to reveal what appears to be a large painting showing a 'Roomse Schilderij', the deathbed of Pope Clement XI in March 1721. In front of the bed stand John Law and the Old Pretender, who has lost his wig and hat; they hold strings attached to the sails of a windmill on the canopy of the bed, beside which are the French cock, the Imperial eagle and the lion of the Netherlands. A thread encircles the waists of Law, the Pretender and Cardinal Alberoni who stands on the far side of the bed. At the head of the bed stands a group of cardinals holding up the papal tiara as the future Innocent XIII reaches for it; his medallion portrait hangs above, with an angel driving away a devil as the background. The Director being pushed forward by the satyrs is now identified as Robert Knight, cashier of the South Sea Company; coins fall from his pocket. The town in the distance is now 'Vryplaats'. The two vignettes at the bottom of the sheet have been changed, that on the left, which still has the same design is now identified as the son of the Pretender (born in 1720); that on the right, now showing a wheel of fortune with Pope Innocent at the top holding a scourge which he directs towards Law who falls down at the left, and destroying with a lightning bolt a paper representing the constitution as the Pretender ascends on the right; Cardinal Alberoni is at the bottom of the wheel. Engraved Dutch title, inscriptions, and verse in three columns which differs from those in the original state
Description:
Title from item., Title translation in British Museum catalogue: Bombario, O death, you were no friend to law when you shot down Pope Clement., State, with depiction of a chamber containing pope's deathbed in the right portion of the image., Publication date from British Museum catalogue., Three columns of verse in Dutch at bottom of image, titled: 't Cashot van Mr. Knigt zuidzee actie Kassier en de roomse schildery en medali., Plate 33 from: Het groote tafereel der dwaasheid ... , v. 1., Temporary local subject terms: Pictures amplifying subject -- Rome: allusion to "Romish picture" -- Architectural details: palace interior -- Freetown -- Popes -- Furniture: canopyed bed -- Papal deathbed -- Destruction of Constitution -- Crimes: South Sea -- France as crowing cock -- Rome as eagle -- England as lion -- Mississippi scheme -- Humbug -- Reference to Venetian trade -- Clergy -- Papacy: tiara and keys -- Father Time with hourglass -- Death as skeleton with sickle -- Portraits: Innocent XIII -- Satyrs with spears -- Capital punishment: gallows -- Bags of money -- Zanies -- Bladder: noisemaker -- Emblems: papal emblems -- Mottoes: S.P.Q.R. -- Schemes -- Symbols: wheel of fortune -- Symbols: tomb of death., and Watermark in the lower portion of sheet, countermark in the upper portion.
Publisher:
publisher not identified
Subject (Name):
Clement XI, Pope, 1649-1721, Innocent XIII, Pope, 1655-1724, James, Prince of Wales, 1688-1766, Alberoni, Guilio, Cardinal, 1664-1752, Knight, Robert, 1675-1744, and Law, John, 1671-1729
Subject (Topic):
South Sea Bubble, Great Britain, 1720, Cardinals, Emblems, National emblems, and Windmills
