Sigismonde pleurant sur le cœur de Guiscardo

Hogarth had made his name and his fortune on biting satires of English life, printed cheap and sold by the thousand. But he ached to be respected as a serious history painter, and in 1759, past 60, he staked that ambition on this one canvas. It shows Sigismunda, a heroine from Boccaccio's medieval tales, grieving over a golden cup that holds the heart of her secret husband, killed on the orders of her own father. Hogarth expected acclaim. Instead, when he showed it in 1761, viewers recoiled at the sight of the glistening heart in her hands and mocked the picture. Stung, he never sold it, and it stayed with him until his death three years later.