Marriage Settlement (c1743). Oil on canvas. 70 x 91. The Marriage Settlement is the first in the series of six satirical paintings known as Marriage à-la-mode painted by William Hogarth. All the main characters are introduced here, at the beginning of the story. Starting with the man under the canopy and moving across the scene there is: Earl/Lord Squanderfield. The man facing out the window, with his back to the scene, perhaps an architect. The man standing at the table, perhaps the Earl's creditor. The Alderman, seated, facing the Earl. The lawyer Silvertongue, standing, next to the bride. The bride, seated, next to the Viscount. Viscount Squanderfield, the Earl's son, seated, on the far left. The only other character who is given a name is the doctor in plate III. Also, Silvertongue is not named until the final plate, VI; his name is given here for convenience. The plot of the painting is the unmitigated greed of the two fathers, the Alderman and the Earl. The Alderman is wealthy to excess, and the Earl isheavily in debt but still retains his ancient title. The Alderman is desirous of becoming the grandfather to a noble son, and the Earl wants to ensure his line is carried on, and is willing to put up with the common Alderman for the sake of his money. Meanwhile, the soon to be married two are completely ignoring each other, and the bride is being courted by the lawyer. Myriad details show the true natures of the characters present, especially the Earl and his son. The Earl is sitting with a bandaged foot resting on a low foot-stool, indicating he is suffering from gout. Gout was associated with overindulgence in alcohol and rich food and Hogarth uses it here for that purpose. The Earl clearly thinks a great deal of himself. He is sumptuously dressed and sits under a coroneted canopy in a posture of stereotypical arrogance. There are coronets everywhere, on his foot-stool, crutches, picture frames, and, ludicrously, in the engraving, on the side of one of the dogs. The Earl is proudly pointing to himself and his family tree that commences with William, Duke of Normandy, indicating a long and noble lineage. About twenty fruit shaped medals, each with a coronet, hang from the branches. The Earl is pointing to one without a coronet but hanging on the main branch, indicating the directness of his and the Viscount's descent. As a pointed addition, Hogarth has added a broken off branch-a previous marriage outside the nobility that was disowned-not something that would normally be displayed on a family tree. This could indicate that the disowned marriage was morganatic, an ironic commentary on the present Marriage Contract between the noble but nearly bankrupt Earl and the rich but vulgar merchant. Visible through the window is the cause of the Earl's present financial pressure; he is having an extravagant new home built. The new house is intentionally in the neo-Palladian style which Hogarth despised and thought degenerate, and often made the butt of his satire. In this case the architecture is muddled, with three Corinthian pillars supporting four Ionic ones. The windows in the basement are triangular. The stable entrance is in the front facade and barely tall enough to accommodate a coach, and certainly not high enough to allow the coachman to pass. The architect, holding the plans, is staring out the window at the unfinished house, waiting patiently for sufficient funds to allow work to restart. Some commentators have identified him as a lawyer along with Silvertongue here for the bargaining, stating that his facial features and posture indicate his amazed disgust at what even he can tell is hideous. On the table in front of the Earl is a pile of gold and bills of exchange-the bride's dowry just handed to him by the bespectacled alderman, who is scrutinising the marriage contract. Between the merchant and the Earl stands an emaciated and threadbare money lender's clerk, who is returning mortgage papers to the Earl with one hand while picking up valuable bills of exchange provided by the merchant as part of the dowry with the other. The Earl's son, the Viscount and the future groom, is foppish and effeminate to the last degree and made to look absolutely ridiculous. He has obviously just returned from the Continent and is dressed in the French style, with a giant black bow in his wig and red raised heels to his shoes. He is quite indifferent to the proceedings and has his back to his future wife, and is admiring himself vapidly in the mirror. He has a glittering ring and is taking snuff from his gold snuffbox. The device of looking into a mirror is a double indication that the heir is both vain and narcissistic. The mirror in which the Viscount is admiring himself is cut in two vertically by the painting's edge.