Anti-Catholicism: Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations [Whore of Babylon], 1789

Anti-Catholicism

Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations [Whore of Babylon],

an allegorical depiction with the several-headed Beast of Revelation, and calculations for the coming of the beast extrapolated from 666 to the present year, flanked by supplicating monks, against a map background with locations such as ‘River of the Blood of the Saints’, ‘Hugonot Massacre Island’, ‘Bloody Queen Mary’s Harbour’ and ‘Cicilian Vesper Pt.’, with various quotations from the book of Revelations, further detailing including the selling of relics of St. Francis and ‘dispensation for the Queen of Portugal to marry her own nephew’, later-19th century MS inscription to mount: ‘This Pen and Ink Sketch of the Woman riding upon the scarlet coloured Beast Rev xvii - 3.4.5.6. Was found at Assam and given to me by the Revd. F. F. Mazuchelli DD of Calcutta’, on 3 sheets of laid paper, trimmed, laid onto woven support on board, later stamp of E. Marshall publisher verso, image 445 x 650mm, 1789.

Provenance: Francis Felix Mazuchelli was the husband of travel writer Elizabeth Sarah Mazuchelli. A Chaplain in H. M. Indian Service, he was posted to Darjeeling in 1869.

***See similar depictions in contemporary satire, such as British Museum 1868,0808.4588.