William Hogarth's 'curve of beauty' mirrored in Henry Fielding's 'Tom Jones': An eighteenth century aesthetic equation

This researcher establishes that the connections between William Hogarth, painter, and Henry Fielding, novelist, were more than collegial or historical. The evidence is that these two craftsmen, albeit working in diverse disciplines, shared an aesthetic formula.;This investigator examines those historical events that were most important in the formulation of Hogarth's and Fielding's temperaments and artistic developments. The researcher reveals how their paternal relationships and professional turmoil instilled upon their personas marked propensities to challenge established trends, to reflect their contemporary society in the comic mirror, and to participate in the literary and artistic discourse of their age and ours.;This writer examines the key ingredients of William Hogarth's aesthetic beliefs as he delineated them in his treatise, The Analysis of Beauty . References to the two plates that accompanied his text, his prints in series, and other individual pieces, contribute to a fuller understanding of his theory. This examiner substantiates the artist's use of a serpentine line and a dimensional delta to enforce a movement, or “wanton chace,” that best captures nature's infinite variety.;Having established the means by which Hogarth practiced his art, the researcher investigates how Fielding in his novel, The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling, employs those same devices. Careful examination of the prefatory chapters and the narrative sequence reveals that Henry Fielding was indeed, appropriating William Hogarth's theory of art. Therefore, the investigator concludes that the two greatest artists of that age actually shared an eighteenth century aesthetic equation.