The prophet of the Hebrews, - the prince of peace - conducting the Jews to the Promis'd-land / Js. Gy. des. et fect.

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James Gillray
1756-1815
The prophet of the Hebrews, - the prince of peace - conducting the Jews to the Promis'd-land / Js. Gy. des. et fect.
engraving
image: 24.7 x 34.6 cm; plate: 25 x 35 cm; sheet: 26 x 36.6 cm
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1900.
Peel 2853
Published: 
[London] : H. Humphrey, 1795.
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Summary: 

Richard Brothers, dressed as a sansculotte and with a crazed expression, carries on his back a 'Bundle of the Elect' from which protrude the heads and legs of Fox, Sheridan, Stanhope (in profile to the right), and Lansdowne (in profile to the left). In his left hand is an open book: 'Revelation', and a sword of flame, his right hand points up an ascending path to the 'Gate of Jerusalem' (right); this is a gallows from which hang three nooses; behind it are flames in which demons are flying. He tramples on a seven-headed monster (the Beast of 'Revelation'): on one head, that of the Pope, he puts his foot, another prostrate human head wears a crown and so does the head of a beast breathing fire. The other four heads are those of demons. Two beams of light slant from his forehead, 'Assignats' project from his coat-pocket. Behind walk a group of Jewish men, the most prominent a pedlar with an open box of trinkets.

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