L'ultima puntata della dama

Hogarth first called this 'Piquet, or Virtue in Danger,' and the title tells you the stakes. A young married woman has gambled away her money to an army officer, and he has offered her one last hand of cards. Win, and she recovers everything. Lose, and she must take him as her lover. Hogarth freezes the instant before she decides, her hand at her mouth, the fire and the clock behind her marking the time she has left. He painted it in 1759, near the end of his life, for a young nobleman who had asked for a picture on any subject the painter liked. Hogarth had spent decades making what he called modern moral subjects, single scenes meant to be read like a paused moment from a play. The outcome of her game is the one thing he refused to paint.