It is Guido's picture of
Perseus rescuing Andromeda from the sea-monster or whale.
Where did Guido get the model of such a strange creature as that?
Nor does Hogarth, in painting the same scene in his own
"Perseus Descending," make out one whit better. The huge
corpulence of that Hogarthian monster undulates on the surface,
scarcely drawing one inch of water. It has a sort of howdah on
its back, and its distended tusked mouth into which the billows
are rolling, might be taken for the Traitors' Gate leading from
the Thames by water into the Tower. Then, there are the Prodromus
whales of the old Scotch Sibbald, and Jonah's whale, as depicted
in the prints of old Bibles and the cuts of old primers.
What shall be said of these? As for the book-binder's whale
winding like a vine-stalk round the stock of a descending anchor--
as stamped and gilded on the backs and titlepages of many
books both old and new--that is a very picturesque but purely
fabulous creature, imitated, I take it, from the like figures
on antique vases. Though universally denominated a dolphin,
I nevertheless call this book-binder's fish an attempt at a whale;
because it was so intended when the device was first introduced.
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