Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Art Fund
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/johan-zoffany-620" aria-label="More by Johan Zoffany" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Johan Zoffany</a>
Charles Macklin as Shylock
Presented by the Art Fund 1951
‘The Merchant of Venice’
actions: postures and motions
actor
adults
aristocrat
arts and entertainment
Aston, Richard, Lord
Bensley, Robert
characters
Clarke, Matthew
court
crime and punishment
crime and punishment
crowd
disguise
dress: fantasy/fancy
Dyer, Michael
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
ethnicity
fear
groups
hand / hands raised
hatred
horror
interiors
Jewish
judge
lawyer
leisure and pastimes
Lessingham, Jane
literature and fiction
Macklin, Charles
Macklin, Maria
man
Mansfield, William Murray, Lord
Morris, David
music and entertainment
named individuals
people
Portia
public and municipal
royalty and social rank
Shakespeare
Shylock
sitting
society
standing
theatre
trader
trading and commercial
trial
woman
work and occupations
<p>This courtroom scene is based on a 1768–9 performance of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (1596–9). In the play, Shylock lends money to Antonio on the condition that he can cut off a pound of Antonio’s flesh if he fails to pay it back. Here, actor Charles Macklin plays Shylock. He is shown holding a knife and preparing to attack Antonio, standing on the right. The seated figure in red on the far left is not an actor, but Lord Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice at the time. This unusual mixture of theatre and reality suggests that this painting was a special commission, possibly for Lord Mansfield.</p><p><em>Gallery label, July 2019</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
24 October 2001 – 11 July 2005
2005-07-11
24 October 2001
2001-10-24
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-10-24
Making British History
Collection based display
27 October 2011 – 10 June 2012
2012-06-10
27 October 2011 – 12 February 2012
2012-02-12
2011-10-27
Yale Center for British Art (New Haven, USA)
http://ycba.yale.edu/index.asp
10 March 2012 – 10 June 2012
2012-06-10
2012-03-10
Royal Academy of Arts (London, UK)
http://www.royalacademy.org.uk
2011-10-27
Johan Zoffany RA: Artist and Enigma
Loan-out
29 November 2012 – 24 July 2022
2022-07-24
1 December 2012
2012-12-01
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-11-29
Gallery 15
Collection based display
Charles Macklin as Shylock
support: 1162 × 1511 mm
frame: 1440 × 1738 × 110 mm
Presented by the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 1951
<p>This is one many theatrical <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portraits</span></a> by Zoffany, who made his reputation <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> the famous actor-manager David Garrick. The picture depicts the trial scene from <em>The Merchant of Venice</em>, Act IV, scene i, probably the moment immediately preceding the climax of the scene when Shylock refuses to listen to Portia's pleas for mercy and Antonio, awaiting the knife, has bared his chest.
</p><p>
The Irish actor Charles Macklin (<em>c</em>.1697-1797) first played the role of Shylock at the Drury Lane Theatre in 1741. To research the character, Macklin studied the gestures, dress and speech of London's Jewish community. Reverting to the interpretation of Shylock as written by Shakespeare instead of following the version then in common use, the 1701 adaptation <em>The Jew of Venice</em> by Lord Lansdowne, Macklin portrayed Shylock as a serious character rather than as a figure of low comedy. His performance prompted Pope's oft-quoted, but probably apocryphal, verse: 'This is the Jew | That Shakespeare drew.' Macklin gave his final performance of the character in 1789, when he was about ninety-two years old. The performance represented here is almost certainly from the 1767-8 Covent Garden season. Macklin is at left centre. The other actors have been identified as follows: the role of Bassanio, on the left, is played by Robert Bensley (1742-1817); Portia, centre, is portrayed by Macklin's daughter Maria Macklin (<em>c</em>.1732-81). On the right are Antonio with bared chest, played by Matthew Clarke (fl. 1755-83), and Gratiano, played by Michael Dyer (died 1774). In the background, seated on a dais, is the Duke, played by David Morris (died 1777); at the foot of the dais are Nerissa, who was performed by Jane Lessingham (1739-83) in all but one performance that season, and the clerk.
</p><p>
Zoffany sets the scene as a composite of Venice and England. The Duke, wearing a Doge's cap, sits on a raised chair and rests his elbow on a pedestal supporting the lion of St Mark. The artist represents Shakespeare's Venetian magnificos as four English judges dressed in their legal robes of scarlet, which was also the colour of the robes of Venetian senators. Two of the judges have unrecognisable features, but the other two are obviously portraits. In profile on the extreme left is William Murray, Lord Mansfield (1704-93), who became Lord Chief Justice in 1756. The reason for his inclusion not apparent. Perhaps it was because of his great fame as a judge, or he may have commissioned the painting. Another explanation might be found in a celebrated lawsuit brought by Macklin in 1775 against a hostile crowd who had sabotaged his performances of <em>Macbeth</em> and <em>The Merchant of Venice</em>. The presiding judges, Lord Mansfield and Richard, Lord Aston, found for Macklin, awarding him £600 and costs. Both the trial and consequent triumphant performance of <em>The Merchant of Venice</em> were much reported in the press at the time and recorded in subsequent biographies of Macklin. The second judge in this painting, who has never been definitively identified, may be Aston.
</p><p>
Zoffany produced his most notable theatre paintings between 1762 and 1770, before leaving England for six years in 1772. The picture shows evidence of reworking, and he may have made the alterations on his return, introducing the topical event of the famous trail and adding the legal <em>dramatis personae</em>. This painting could be seen as an attempt by Zoffany to record a recent historical occasion in combination with his old, once-popular subject, the theatrical <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/conversation-piece" title="Glossary definition for 'Conversation piece'"><span>conversation piece</span></a>.
</p><p>
At the Royal Academy exhibition of 1779, John Kitchingman exhibited a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/miniature" title="Glossary definition for 'Miniature'"><span>miniature</span></a> in oil, <em>The Head of Macklin</em>, an unacknowledged copy made directly from Zoffany's portrait. Mander and Mitchenson list three other portraits by Zoffany of Charles Macklin as Shylock: <em>The Shylock-Tubal Scene</em>, Hughes-Stanton Collection; a Full-Length Portrait, Maugham Collection, National Theatre; and a Head Study, National Gallery, Dublin). In addition, numerous <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/engraving" title="Glossary definition for 'Engraving'"><span>engravings</span></a> are associated with this painting. The picture is unfinished.
</p><p>
<strong>Further reading:</strong><br/>
<em>Dictionary of National Biography</em>, XII, London 1909, pp.623-8<br/>
Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson, <em>The Artist and the Theatre</em>, Melbourne, London and Toronto 1955, pp.54-63<br/>
Mary Webster, <em>Johan Zoffany 1733-1810</em>, exhibition catalogue, National Portrait Gallery, London 1976, pp.44-5, reproduced
</p><p>
Terry Riggs<br/>
January 1998


</p>
Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>This courtroom scene is based on a 1768–9 performance of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (1596–9). In the play, Shylock lends money to Antonio on the condition that he can cut off a pound of Antonio’s flesh if he fails to pay it back. Here, actor Charles Macklin plays Shylock. He is shown holding a knife and preparing to attack Antonio, standing on the right. The seated figure in red on the far left is not an actor, but Lord Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice at the time. This unusual mixture of theatre and reality suggests that this painting was a special commission, possibly for Lord Mansfield.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2019-07-02T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
actions: postures and motions actor adults aristocrat arts and entertainment Aston, Richard, Lord Bensley, Robert characters Clarke, Matthew court crime and punishment crime and punishment crowd disguise dress: fantasy/fancy Dyer, Michael emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas ethnicity fear groups hand / hands raised hatred horror interiors Jewish judge lawyer leisure and pastimes Lessingham, Jane literature and fiction Macklin, Charles Macklin, Maria man Mansfield, William Murray, Lord Morris, David music and entertainment named individuals people Portia public and municipal royalty and social rank Shakespeare Shylock sitting society standing theatre ‘The Merchant of Venice’ trader trading and commercial trial woman work and occupations