24 - HOGARTH, William (1697–1764) and his studio. (Studio of). “Sancho at the Magnificent Feast” Oil on canvas framed with a wide gilded wooden moldings 18th-century English School Canvas dimensions: 97.5 cm / 128 cm The scene depicts one of the most famous episodes from Cervantes’ Don Quixote. It depicts Sancho Panza, now governor of the imaginary island of Barataria, seated before a sumptuous meal. Just as he is about to eat, his physician, Pedro Recio, has the dishes removed one after another, ostensibly to protect his health. Sancho glares angrily at the physician while the courtiers watch this veritable culinary torture with amusement. Hogarth’s preparatory wash (pencil and gray wash, 26.3/28.9 cm), which was intended to serve as the illustration for an English edition of *Don Quixote*, was reportedly sold on April 8, 1997, at Christie’s in London. However, there is a print known to be held by the British Museum, in the Department of Prints and Drawings, under the accession number Cc,1.240. “Sancho at the Magnificent Feast”—engraved by William Hogarth around 1726–1727, in reverse of the preparatory wash. Its composition corresponds exactly to the proposed painting. It was, in fact, very common at the time for engravers commissioned to illustrate a work to transfer their graphic designs onto canvas. It is worth noting the exceptional quality of the painting, characteristic of Hogarth’s art, which is distinguished by a particularly keen observation of 18th-century English society in all its diversity: aristocrats, servants, doctors… His scenes are teeming with detail. They accentuate facial expressions, not to distort them gratuitously but to convey a behavior or a moral flaw. Hogarth often delights in depicting a character who is oblivious to his own ridiculousness, while the viewer understands the true nature of the situation. This is the case here with Sancho Panza. Thus, he puts all his satirical talent to work in illustrating Cervantes’s masterpiece.