Procession through the Hippodrome, Constantinople (Aubry de La Mottraye's "Travels throughout Europe, Asia and into Part of Africa...," London, 1724, vol. I, plate 15)

Hogarth made this print early in his career to illustrate a travel book by the French author Aubry de La Mottraye. The image of a marriage procession derives from "Recueil de cent estampes représentant differéntes nations du Levant..." (A Collection of One Hundred Prints Representing Nations of the Levant, 1712-13). In that earlier publication plate 100, "Mariage Turc" (Turkish marriage) was engraved by Jean Baptiste Scotin (b. 1678) after Jean Baptiste Vanmour. Hogarth's print reverses the direction of the figures and moves them from a country setting to the center of Constantinople.

Credit: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1932