The analysis of beauty

In the development of English aesthetics, William Hogarth's 'The Analysis of Beauty' takes a position of high significance. In this now classic edition, Ronald Paulson includes the complete text of the original work; an introduction that places the 'Analysis' in the tradition of aesthetic treatises and Hogarth's own 'moral' works; extensive annotation of the text and accompanying illustrations; and illuminating manuscript passages that Hogarth omitted from the final printed version. Hogarth's stature in his own time suggests the importance of his attempt to systematise and theorise his artistic practice. What he proposes is an aesthetics of the middle range, subordinating both the Beautiful and the Sublime to the everyday world of human choice and contingency - essentially the world of Hogarth's own 'modern moral subjects'. Ronal Paulson is Mayer Professor of Humanities at Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of many books, including a biography of Hogarth, a catalogue of his engravings, and studies of Hogarth in the contexts of eighteenth-century painting, literature, and the British tradition of aesthetics.