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"Ha! I Like Not That"
John Rogers (born Salem, MA 1829-died New Canaan, CT 1904)
patented 1882
- Medium
- painted plaster
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- 22 x 20 3/4 x 14 3/8 in. (55.8 x 52.6 x 36.5 cm)
- Museum
- Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Rogers and Son
- Rights
- CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Smithsonian Institution
About this work
For this statuette illustrating a scene from Shakespeare's Othello, John Rogers conveys the play's setting--Renaissance Venice--through swords, ceramics, feathers, brocades, leather, and lace. These bring to life a pivotal scene in which the vile Iago, on the far left, plants the seeds of murderous jealousy in Othello, whose wife, Desdemona, appears to receive inappropriate attentions from a rival. A luxurious collar accentuates Desdemona's beauty, while a dagger hints at Iago's treachery. Through such historical detail, this parlor statue fueled Americans' popular conception of Venice as a place of adventure, romance, and above all, sensual excess.
