Five Orders of Periwigs

The Five Orders of Periwigs (The Five Orders of Perriwigs as they were Worn at the Late Coronation Measured Architectonically) is a 1761 engraving by William Hogarth. It contains several levels of satire. First, and most clearly, it lampoons the fashion for outlandish wigs in the mid to late 18th century. Second, in classifying the wigs into "orders", it satirises the formulation of canons of beauty from the analysis of surviving pieces of classical architecture and sculpture from ancient Greece and ancient Rome, particularly the precise drawings of James "Athenian" Stuart in his 1761 book Antiquities of Athens. To the lower right, the engraving gives its publication date as 15 October 1761.

Of the engraving, Hogarth himself commented in his book of anecdotes:

As a parallel to the five orders of classical architecture identified by Palladio (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Composite and Tuscan), the engraving postulates five "orders" of periwig, from the relatively simple "Episcopal" (for the clergy), through the "Old Peerian or Aldermanic" (for lords and council officials) and "Lexonic" (for lawyers) to the more ornate "Composite or Half Natural", and finally the effete "Queerinthian or Queue de Reynard" (a pun on the French for "foxtail").

A scale shows the "Athenian Measure" by which the dimensions of each wig are annotated, with one "nodule" comprising 3 "nasos" (noses) and each "naso" of 3 "minutes". The component parts of each wig are labelled with letters A to I, each denoting a mock architectural terms, from A: the "Corona or Lermier or Foretop" and B: the "Architrave or Archivolt or Caul" to H: "Fillet or Ribbon" and I: "Helices or Volute or Spiral or Curl".

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