n obviously unhappy union, suggests that the marriage was arranged as a means of gaining wealth or titles (which is the case and becomes apparent more in the other paintings). Several paintings hang on the walls in the opposite room: “an upper row of old masters [depicting various saints], one covered with the traditional green curtain as if to protect it from the light; though the bed and protruding leg suggest that it is a composition concealed for its too-provocative nudity—a Venus perhaps, or more likely Leda or a Danae (Webster 104). This half-covered painting reflects the nature of the couple’s marriage: while they may appear to uphold the sanctity of marriage (as suggested by their choice of the respectable art hung on their walls) but make only a half-hearted attempt to hide their infidelities from each other. The Roman bust with a broken nose on the mantle and the painting above it, featuring Cupid playing a song on the bagpipes ironically titled “O Happy Groves” amidst falling ruins, suggest the similarly ruined and collapsing state of the couple’s marriage.Hogarth's remarkably exuberant satire of marriage for money, his pungent details of upper-class life, and his mastery of complex scenes find perhaps their highest expression in this series, generally considered his finest work. (Encarta). Although critics have commented that the series progresses somewhat abruptly, with little idea of what occurs in between the six scenes, rarely is any one painting referred to independent of the others. But because of the complexity of each scene, the paintings, The Marriage Contract and The Tte--Tte in particular, can easily stand by themselves as brilliant satires of arranged marriage in the 18th century. Such is the genius of Hogarth. ...
