Telling Stories
The idea of pictures being composed in series has been employed by many artists and printmakers, either to illustrate existing narratives or to create new ones. One of the best-known artists to employ this device was Hogarth, whose 'modern moral subjects' such as the Harlot's Progress , Industry and Idleness and Four Stages of Cruelty track the progress (always an ambiguous word in Hogarth's usage) of characters through multiple stages. But while Hogarth was an innovator in many ways, his series also formed part of a well-established tradition of representing narratives in sequence. Many artists and printmakers were involved in elaborate projects to illustrate literary works , as Hogarth himself had been. Sometimes these were small sets, such as these atmospheric illustrations to Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered (to see more images from each series click on the links): Six scenes from 'Jerusalem Delivered' [Various engravers, including Edward Rooker an