Oxford Macaroni

Date1772

Publisher Matthew Darly ca. 1720 - 1780

Publisher Mary Darly 1760 - 1781

Publisher M. Darly

OriginEngland, London

MediumHand-colored etching

DimensionsOverall: 8 5/8 × 5 9/16in. (21.9 × 14.1cm)
Other: 7 × 4 7/8in. (17.8 × 12.4cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1955-62,31

DescriptionUpper margin reads: "5"
Lower margin reads: "THE OXFORD-MACARONI./ Pub by MDarly accor to Act Jan.y 11.th 1772"Label TextThe print is plate 5 from volume II of six volumes of Mary and Matthew Darly's "Caricatures Macaronies & Characters by Sundry Ladies and Gentleman Artists &c." The figure satirizes a student of the University of Oxford, dressed in academic robes, wears his hair in a large club, which was emblematic of the "macaroni" caricature type.

The Darly's were a husband-and-wife team who capitalized on the craze for caricatures -- the practice of making a likeness with exaggerated mannerisms or features to create a comic effect. This form was brought back by aristocratic Britons who visited Italy on the Grand Tour. The Darly’s catered to this audience by publishing a prolific assortment of caricature prints during the 1770s. Many of the Darly's satirized the manners and fashions of the macaroni, a term used to describe a sub-culture of fashionably dressed men during the period, and subsequently, regardless of subject, the Darly's prints were known as "macaroni prints."

Their most famous work was their encyclopedic "Caricatures" which included prints of macaroni’s as well as other interesting characters, such as macaronis, all based on their own drawings and those submitted to them by amateur artists lambasting their friends, artists, and other figures in London life. The front page of Volume I describes them as “…a Series of Drol[l] Prints consisting of Heads, Figures, Conversations and Satires upon the follies of the Age…” These prints were published in groups of 24, in six volumes that were published between 1771 and 1773. Colonial Williamsburg owns volumes 1-4.ProvenanceBefore 1955, the Old Print Shop (New York, NY); 1955-present, purchased by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA).