WILLIAM BLAKE'S COLOR PRINT SERIES OF 1795.

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FANNIN, BILL BRADFIELD, JR.

WILLIAM BLAKE'S COLOR PRINT SERIES OF 1795

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University Microfilms International

WILLIAM BLAKE'S COLOR PRINT SERIES OF 1795

by

Bill Bradfield Fannin, Jr.

A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the

DEPARTMENT OF ART

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of

MASTER OF ARTS WITH A MAJOR IN ART HISTORY

In the Graduate College

THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

198 2 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR

This thesis has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrow­ ers under rules of the Library.

Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his judg­ ment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholar­ ship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author.

SIGNED:

APPROVAL BY THESIS DIRECTOR

This thesis has been approved on the date shown below:

7//fe/: SHELDON REICH J Datfe Professor of Art ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to express my gratitude to the University of

Arizona Art History faculty and staff for their continual support, and particularly to Dr. Sheldon Reich, Dr. Ellwood Parry, and Professor

Donald Garfield for their enthusiasm and editorial expertise.

I would also like to thank my family and friends for their patience and, finally, my typist, Joan Farmer, whose attention to detail made the final preparation of the thesis that much easier.

Now I a fourfold vision see And a fourfold vision is given to me Tis fourfold in my supreme delight And threefold in soft Beulahs night And twofold Always. May God us keep from Single vision & Newtons sleep.

— William Blake to Thomas Butts November 22, 1802

ill TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS v

ABSTRACT vii

1. BLAKE AND HIS TIMES 1

2. THE 1795 PRINTS . * 5

The Good and Evil Angels 9 God Creating Adam 14 Satan Exulting over Eve 19 Newton 21 Nebuchadnezzar 26 Lamech and his Two Wives 30 Hecate 35 Pity 41 Ruth and Naomi 45 The House of Death 47 God Judging Adam 51 Christ Appearing 56

3. PROBLEMS OF DATING 59

4. REVIEW OF LITERATURE 66

5. INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS 73

APPENDIX A: BLAKE'S 1795 PRINTS: EXTANT STATES AND PRESENT LOCATIONS 79

APPENDIX B: PROPOSED SCHEMATIC FOR BLAKE'S 1795 PRINT SERIES EMPHASIZING HIS DICHOTOMY OF REASON AND EMOTION 01

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 83

iv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure Page

1. William Blake, The Good and Evil Angels 10

2. William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, plate 4 11

3. William Blake, God Creating Adam 15

4. Reliefs from the Tower of the Winds from Richard Dalton's Antiquities and Views in Greece and Egypt .... 18

5. William Blake, Satan Exulting over Eve 20

6. William Blake, Newton 22

7. William Blake, Europe: A Prophesy, frontispiece 24

8. William Blake, There Is No Natural Religion, "Application" 24

9. William Blake, Nebuchadnezzar 27

10. William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, plate 24 28

11. Albrecht Diirer, The Penance of St. John Chrysostom .... 29

12. John Hamilton Mortimer, Nebuchadnezzar Recovering his Reason 29

13. William Blake, Lamech and his Two Wives (Tate Gallery) . . 31

14. William Blake, Lamech and his Two Wives (Collection of Robert Essick) 32

15. William Blake, Hecate 36

16. The Rest on the Flight into Egypt from Alexander Browne's Ars Pictoria 39

17. William Blake, The Book of Urizen, title page 40

18. William Blake, Pity 42

19. William Blake, "Pity," first pencil drawing 43

v vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure Page

20. William Blake, "Pity1,1 second pencil drawing 44

21. William Blake, "Pity1,1 trial print 44

22. William Blake, Ruth and Naomi 46

23. William Blake, The House of Death 48

24. William Blake, The Lazar House 50

25. Henry Fuseli, The Lazar House 50

26. William Blake, God Judging Adam (Tate Gallery) 52

27. William Blake, God Judging Adam (Philadelphia Museum of Art) 53

28. George Stubbs, The Fall of Phaeton 55

29. William Blake, Christ Appearing 57 ABSTRACT

William Blake's twelve, seemingly casually related color prints of 1795 are the visual and iconographical high point of his early career. This paper examines each of these images separately to establish individual iconographies and histories and then pro­ vides a comprehensive reading for the series as a whole. In addition, the problems involved in accurately dating the various states of each print are discussed and tentative dates are proposed for ten of the prints that were originally in the collection of Thomas Butts.

Previous studies have argued that the key to Blake's 1795 series lies in its tenuous narrative structure, in its use of parallel images or in its borrowings from other artists. While all of these concepts are to a greater or lesser degree valid, it is this paper's intent to show that the real organizational power of the series is found in Blake's personal dichotomy of Reason vs. Emotion.

vii CHAPTER 1

BLAKE AND HIS TIMES

William Blake was born in 1757 and died 1827, leaving a body of original work—engravings, etchings, illuminated books, paintings,

prose and poetry—that have been alternately called works of genius or

the productions of a madman.1 Although Blake was decidedly unconven­ tional, he most certainly was not mad. As the most imaginative artist and thinker of his time, his artistic vision was complex and difficult, for he was the product of a complex and difficult age.2

Three sociological upheavals shaped the decades in which he lived. The first two of these, the American Revolution and the French

Revolution, forged the political climate of his world and fostered his own development as liberal thinker and fighter for human rights.

In time, they also forced him to give up his public life in favor of a more private one. For during the American conflict and the early days of the French Revolution, Blake and his fellow intellectuals were tolerated, even admired. With the coming of the anarchy of the Reign of Terror, however, all of this changed. The fear generated by the

*See "Mad or Not Mad?" in Alexander Gilchrist's The Life of William Blake, ed. by W. Graham Robertson (London: John Lane the Bodley Head Ltd., 1906), pp. 337-350.

20f the many published studies that have dealt with William Blake's history, the two that have been most useful in the preparation of this introduction are Mona Wilson's The Life of William Blake, (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1971) and J. Bronowski's William Blake and the Age of Revolution (New York: Harper & Row, 1969).

1 2

continental mob action destroyed the political equilibrium of England,

and liberalism became synonomous with sedition and treason.

Economic in conception, social in impact, the third great

catalystic force of Blake's age was the Industrial Revolution. By

moving traditional industries from the cottage and the village to

the factory and the city, it transformed England from a home-shop

nation to a modern industrial state. In the process amazing changes

occurred: new classes of entrepreneurs developed, appalling labor

practices were promoted and crimes against property came to be

regarded as more serious than those against person.

Living in cosmopolitan London for almost his entire life,

Blake could not help but be painfully aware of the ill effects that

mass-production industry had on the dignity of the human spirit. His

writings were filled with references to "dark, Satanic Mills," and

his own career suffered from the up and down economics of artificial

market manipulations.

Blake's artistic development can be divided into two major

periods. The first of these can be marked from his seven-year

apprenticeship to engraver James Basire, beginning in 1772, until

1800. This early phase might be called Blake's "public" period, for

it was during this time that he most openly discussed the rights of

man, the joys of democracy and the dangers of governmental control.

It was also during this period that he developed his most important

technical innovations—various processes designed to combine the

luxurious look of medieval illuminated manuscripts with the ease of

contemporary printing methods. Blake had high financial hopes for 3

his new discoveries and for his new esthetic in book design, as well;

but in money matters he was always unlucky. Through the effects of

a shaky economy, political unrest, artistic cutthroatism or simply

bad timing, few, if any, of his financial schemes broke even, much

less turned a profit.

Blake's economic misfortunes were at their worst in the second

half or "private" stage of his career, dated from July of 1800 until

his death in 1827. By the early 1800's, Blake's linear, antiquarian

engraving style was rapidly falling out of fashion and he was hard

pressed to make a living from the few commercial commissions he was able to secure.

Although Blake spent the first few years of the new century at Felpham on the Sussex coast in the hopes that a change in scenery would promote a change in fortune, his first, and last, extended excursion from London was a disaster. Supplied with so much incon­ sequential hack work by his host and patron, William Hayley, he had little time to devote to his own projects. In the end, due to an unfortunate run-in with a drunken soldier, he was even charged with treason, and though he was acquitted, the incident was not without lasting effect.

When Blake returned to London in 1803, he was financially embittered and politically wary. His poetic voice, so outspoken and resolute in his Prophetic Books of the 1790's became subtle, devious and remote. He no longer sought to appeal to .the masses, for he was interested instead in developing his own personal verse forms to their greatest effect. The results were Milton and Jerusalem—dark, 4 brooding and difficult, but undoubtedly his epic masterpieces.

Other works of the period are no less grand—the Paradise Lost water- colors, the engraved designs to The Book of Job and the illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy—all have the stamp of mastery to them.

Blake's last few years were not as difficult as those pre­ ceding them. The friendship, patronage and attention of younger artists like John Linnell and Samuel Palmer helped immeasurably, and an occasional grant from the Royal Academy, not to mention a few gratifying commissions from friends and admirers, worked to ease his financial burdens.

When Blake died just short of his seventieth birthday, he was fearless, happy and content. CHAPTER 2

THE 1795 PRINTS

Presumably produced in 1795, Blake's series of large, color- printed drawings has long been regarded as one of the triumphs of his artistic career. Inspired by the Old and New Testaments, by his own writings and those of Milton and Shakespeare, Blake constructed a series that is not only iconographically stimulating but is also artistically and technically satisfying. The series consists of twelve designs—The Good and Evil Angels, God Creating Adam, Satan

Exulting over Eve, Newton, Nebuchadnezzar, Lantech and his Two Wives,

Hecate, Pity, Ruth and Naomi, The House of Death, God Judging Adam and Christ Appearing.3

Blake used the same format for each picture. The compositions are all horizontal and measure roughly one and one-half feet by two feet, which for Blake, a specialist in book illustrations, water- colors and cabinet pictures, was quite large.1*

Although many of the technical specifics of Blake's printing process*—essentially a form of monotype—have been open to conjecture

^See Appendix A for a complete listing of extant states and their present locations.

Martin Butlin, "The Evolution of Blake's Large Color Prints of 1975." in William Blake: Essays for S. Foster Damon, ed. by Alvin H. Rosenfeld (Providence: Brown University Press, 1969), pp. 109-116. Butlin traces a dual development in Blake's printed productions—a progressive increase in format size and the gradual disjunction of text and Illustration. 5 6

for years, the separate researches of W. Graham Robertson, Ruthven

Todd and Robert Essick have been able to reconstruct it with what

must be considered reasonable accuracy.®

The composition was first laid out in reverse on a piece of

thick pasteboard. Variously colored paints—probably watercolor

pigments suspended in either hot carpenter's glue or a gum medium'—G

were then thickly applied to the board to conform to the outlines of

the composition. After a piece of paper had been carefully posi­

tioned on top of the board, both were run through a simple proof

press set at extremely light pressure. The paper was carefully peeled

from the board and the resultant print was finished by hand with ink

and watercolor. Up to three pulls could be made from one application

of pigment, but as each successive print was weaker than its pred­

ecessor more touching up was required in the later states.

In addition, more printed color could be added by either re-

inking selected areas of the board and making a second press run or

by applying localized color to the print itself and blotting.7

%uthven Todd, "The Techniques of William Blake's Illuminated Printing," in The Visionary Hand: Essays for the Study of William Blake's Art and Aesthetics, ed. by Robert Essick (Los Angeles: Hennessey and Igalls, 1973), pp. 22-20. [Reprinted from The Print Collector's Quarterly 29(November 1948): 25-37] and Robert Essick, William Blake, Printmaker (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980), pp. 130-135.

6Ibid., pp. 131, 259-260. Since the 1860s, carpenter's glue has been generally accepted as Blake's binding agent. Essick reports, however, that in at least one of the 1795 prints (Lantech and His Two Wives) some form of vegetable gum was employed instead.

7Ibid., pp. 133-134. Multiple press runs, though certainly possible, seem unlikely as registration would be critical. Since no evidence of double imaging appears in any of the prints, blotting seems to have been the preferred technique. 7

Blake's printing method differs in several ways from the usual monotype process. Most importantly, his printing step is used only to block in large, generally unarticulated, areas of shading and color. These areas tend to be very textured as the tacky printing pigment cones when the paper is peeled from the printing base. The technique results in many happy "accidents" which Blake was able to use to full advantage but is also inexact enough to require all fine details of faces, hair, hands and feet to be added in ink and most of the interior modelling of figures to be added in watercolor. Due to this extensive hand retouching, major visual, and even iconographical, differences can appear even within the limited run of three prints.

Quite remarkably, given the position of excellence in which most Blake admirers hold them, there has been surprising little critical discussion of the 1795 prints. This is puzzling but perhaps understandable once one realizes that out of all of Blake's major productions, the 1795 series alone has no accompanying text. The focus in Blake scholarship has traditionally been on his literary accomplishments. It has only been recently, say within the last forty years, that the detailed analysis of the visual side of his productions has come into its own.8 Despite this increased awareness

®C. H. Collins Baker was among the first to stress the importance, of the visual aspects of Blakefs art in a series of arti­ cles that were published in the early 1940s. Anthony Blunt*s The Art of William Blake (Morningside Heights, New York: Columbia University Press, 1959) was the first important study produced for popular consumption to adopt this point-of-view. 8

even today there is a certain reluctance by scholars to deal with

Blake's art from a purely visual perspective.

Perhaps this is the way it should be. Blake was a poet as well as a painter. His life's ambition was bent towards finding the

perfect synthesis between the two. On the rare occasions when he set out to promote one or the other, as he did in the 1795 prints, he assumed that the enlightened viewer would have no trouble in discern­ ing his meaning.

To a limited extent this is true. Anyone reasonably familiar with Blake's beliefs and iconography will have no problem in formulat­ ing readings for most of the prints, for many of them are closely connected with other, more accessible, works by Blake. Trouble arises with several of the more obscure prints and particularly with attempts to read all twelve as a series.

This latter concern especially has defeated the few scholars who have attempted It. To be fair, most analytic exercises of this kind are, by nature, too narrow in scope to be successful. Limited journal space or a few random pages within a longer study of Blake's art simply cannot do justice to so intricate an iconography as that of the 1795 prints.

Blake built his 1795 series on four or five major interlocking organizational structures. Not all of them are equally obvious, but all of them are necessary to a full understanding of the series. With careful analysis and a little patience, the structures soon become apparent; and when the structures are visible, rewarding interpreta­ tion follows easily. 9

The Good and Evil Angels

The Good and Evil Angels (Pig. 1) was one of Blake's favorite designs of the 1790s. In addition to the two existing states of the

1795 color print, the composition also appears as a relief etching in

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (Fig. 2) and as a watercolor, as well.9 Derived from Blake's own writings rather than from an outside literary source, the subject of the print is somewhat enigmatic.

Blake's personal symbolism overlaps so much that there has been speculation as to what exactly the scene represents and whether it is meant to be seen from a narrative or an iconic perspective.

If the scene is narrative, two episodes from Blake's corporate myth have been suggested as possible sources—Los and his female emanation, Enitharmon, struggling over the possession of their son,

Ore;10 and, Ore and Los battling for control of the spirit of the undivided man.11 Unfortunately, neither of the proposed events really fulfills the conditions established in the print. The former is hampered by the fact that both angels appear to be male, and the latter lacks authority as there is no reference to a child—even in symbolic guise—in any literary scene of conflict between Los and Ore.

Because the design first appeared in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, which was in production during, if not finished before,

9Cecil Higgins Museum, Bedford. See Blunt, Plate 32a.

10Ibld., pp. 61-62.

1 Martin Butlin, William Blake (London: The Tate Gallery, 1978). p. 65. Figure 1. William Blake, The Good and Evil Angels. — Tate Gallery /Miss

Figure 2. William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, plate 4. — Collection of Sir Geoffrey Keynes 12

Blake's development of his early, mythic narratives, an allegorical/ instructional reading of the print seems more likely. In The

Marriage of Heaven and Hell» Blake's concern lies with mapping the eternal universe of man's mind rather than the transitory, physical universe of his limited senses. In a carefully worded argument, he establishes the traditional operational contraries of "Good" and

"Evil" and represents them as his own, non-moral generalizations of

"Energy" and "Reason." In this way, he can favor independent- thinking "devils" over the staid, vegetating "angels" of traditional, established orthodoxy.The case is succinctly stated in the text that occupies the upper two^thirds of Plate 4 of The Marriage of

Heaven and Hell—the same plate which contains the "Good and Evil

Angels" design.

All Bibles or sacred codes have been the causes of the following Errors

1. That Man has two real existing principles Viz: a Body St a Soul

2. That Energy, calld Evil, is alone from the Body, & that Reason, calld Good, is alone from the Soul.

3. That God will torment Man in Eternity for following his Energies.

But the following Contraries to these are True.

1. Man has no Body distinct from his Soul for that Body is a portion of Soul discerned by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age.

12S. Foster Damon, A Blake Dictionary (Boulder: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1979), p. 262. 13

2. Energy is the only life and is from the Body and Reason is the bound or outward circumference of Energy.

3. Energy is Eternal Delight.13

These simple generalizations sum up much of Blake's personal philosophy by pointing out the danger of dividing Energy/Inspiration from Reason. The existence of either by itself results only in pro­ fessional and spiritual imbalance.

It is exactly this condition that Blake is addressing in The

Good and Evil Angels. The good angel backed by the flames of energy is shown chained by the ankle for he has lost the reasoning ability which would allow him to soar freely and give positive direction to his actions. Without creative purpose, he becomes a willfully destructive force—a threat to himself and everything around him.

The case of the evil angel, a slave to the mechanical universe of the senses (symbolized by the waters of materialism beneath him), is just as hopeless. Although not physically restrained, he lacks the inspiration that would make his life fulfilling and is as perverse and as dangerous as his imaginative counterpart.

The object of both angels' attention, the child, is the poten­ tial victim. In his innocence, he functions in a state of eternal bliss. The two angels blinded by creative frustration on one hand*1* and by rationalized inactivity on the other seek to control and corrupt him.

*^The Poetry and Prose of William Blake, ed. by David Erdman (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1965), p, 34.

14The good angel is literally blind only in the Tate Gallery's copy of the print. 1A

From a programmatic standpoint, The Good and Evil Angels is extremely important to the 1795 series. It not only defines the environment in which the series is based but it also points the way to a symbolic rather than a narrative reading of the prints.

God Creating Adam

It is somewhat unusual that only one copy of Blake's God

Creating Adam (also known as Elohim Creating Adam)*5 (Fig. 3) is known to exist, especially as two, and frequently three, states of each of the other designs have come down to us. Martin Butlin has suggested that other Impressions may come to light and that, in any case, more than one example of the print must have existed as Blake sold one copy to Thomas Butts in 1805 and included a complete set of the 1795 designs in a price list submitted by letter to Dawson Taylor in 1818.*® This hypothesis, however, may be based on a misreading of the text, for

Blake presented the prints (along with a list of his Prophetic Books) with the following sales explanation:

The few I have printed & Sold are sufficient to have gained me great reputation as an Artist, which was the chief thing I intended. But I have never been able to produce a Suffi­ cient number for a general Sale by means of a regular Pub­ lisher. It is therefore necessary to me that any Person wishing to have any or all of them should send me their Order to Print them on the above terms, & I will take care

^Although the print is inscribed Elohim Creating Adam on the lower margin, it is Itemized as God Creating Adam in Blake's financial accounts with Thomas Butts* Elohim was one of the earliest manifesta­ tions of the Hebraic God and was used by Blake as the personification of three specific aspects of the Divinity—Creation, Judgement and Vengeance. His counterpart was Jehovah, the embodiment of Mercy. See Damon, p. 119.

16Butlin, William Blake, p. 59. 15

Figure 3. William Blake, God Creating Adam. — Tate Gallery. 16

that they shall be done at least as well as any I have yet Produced.17

Since Blake's last statement suggests that the items in ques­ tion were not on hand ready for sale, but rather were available as new productions, the Tate's version of God Creating Adam could well be a unique creation. Blake frequently produced copies of specific works for friends who commissioned them (e.g., John Linnell's duplicate set of the watercolor designs for Job), and it is to be assumed from this that—if the price were right—he would be willing to revive his mono­ type process as well.

In any case, God Creating Adam is in conception, at least, if not in execution, as well, one of the earliest of the 1795 prints. A rough, preparatory sketch for the design is found in Blake's common­ place book18 and a certain fussy, overworked quality in some portions of the print itself suggests that Blake was still developing his mono­ type technique when the print was pulled.

Iconographically, God Creating Adam is of particular interest as it contains one of the finest examples of one of Blake's favorite motif's—the serpent or worm-wrapped figure. Mary Jackson has shown this motif to be derived from contemporary, antiquarian representations of Ahriman, the winged, serpent-coiled spiritual being who plays a

17The Letters of William Blake, ed. by Sir Geoffrey Keynes (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1956), p. 178.

*®Reproduced as Plate 13 in Sir Geoffrey Keynes's Drawings of William Blake: 92 Pencil Studies (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1970), and as Plate N54 in The Notebook of William Blake: A Photo­ graphic and Typographic Facsimile, ed. by David Erdman and Donald Moore (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973). 17

promlnant role in Zoroastrian and Mythraic mythology.19 As the "ruler

of the corporeal world and guardian of the means of ingress and

egress,"20 the image of Ahriman must have been especially intriguing

to Blake. By combining this exotic image with a theory of pseudo-

evolution21 and such traditional Christian associations as the Serpent

in Eden, he was able to create a most persuasive symbol.

The form of Ahriman is not the only example of borrowing in

the print. The figure of God, as well, is drawn from an antiquarian

prototype—specifically from an engraving of Skiron, the southwest wind on the Tower of the Winds in Athens (Fig. A).22

Blake1s borrowing method served him well throughout his entire

career. He accumulated a great storehouse of visual and literary motifs and was able to weld these disparate Images together to suit his own purposes. Frequently, the resulting marriage is so complete that only with the greatest of difficulty can the original sources be discovered.

19Mary Jackson, "Blake and Zoroastrianism," Blake; An Illus­ trated Quarterly 11, no. 2, (1977): 74.

20Ibid.

21Blake was familiar with the postulates of Erasmus Darwin, the noted naturalist/poet, whose grandson, Charles, later revised and refined his theories for The Origin of the Species.

22C. H. Collins Baker, "The Sources of Blake's Pictorial Expression," in The Visionary Hand: Essays for the Study of William Blake's Art and Aesthetics, ed. by Robert Essick (Los Angeles: Hennes­ sey and Ingalls, 1973), pp. 124-126. [Reprinted from Huntington Li­ brary Quarterly 4 (1940-41): 359-367.] Baker suggests that a plate in Richard Dalton's Antiquities and Views in Greece and Egypt (London, 1791) provided the original source of inspiration, though in an up-date to the original article, Essick' reports that a similar, engraved image can be found in James Stuart and Nicholas Revett's The Antiquities of Athens (London, 1762). I'KIPON

Figure 4. Reliefs from the Tower of the Winds from Richard Dalton's Antiquities and Views in Greece and Egypt. — Huntington Library. 19

Satan Exulting over Eve

Although Satan Exulting over Eve (Fig. 5) is, from a narra­ tive standpoint, the successor to God Creating Adam, there is no phys­ ical evidence to suggest that it was the second print of the series to be produced. Nevertheless, the compositional parallelism between the two prints is strong enough to warrant the conclusion that they were meant to be seen as a pair. The iconography of each is closely related and the use of what may be called the "dialogue technique"— wherein two similar compositions are presented side by side with vari­ ant elements—is especially effective. God has been replaced by Satan,

Adam by Eve and the Worm of Materialism by the Serpent of Eden. It is important to realize that no one-to-one comparison is being made between the two nor are the prints meant to be seen as "example" and

"counter-example." They exist as commentary on one another and much of their success depends more on the subtle power of association than on any specific literary text.

As in God Creating Adam, the influence of the iconography asso­ ciated with Ahriman is strongly felt in Satan Exulting over Eve. The motif of the serpent's head resting on Eve's breast is a variation of the original Ahrimanic image and is somewhat closer to the original prototype than the similar treatment in the figure of Adam.21*

Mary Jackson has supposed that Blake's frequent use of bat-like wings may also show the Indirect influence of Ahriman cult—the source this time being Tornado, an engraving by Blake, after a design by

2lfJackson, p. 77. Figure 5. William Blake, Satan Exulting over Eve. Tate Gallery. 21

Henry Fuseli, for the third edition of Erasmus Darwin's The Botanic

Garden (1975).2ti This is quite possible, for although there is no extant sketch for the entire scene of Satan Exulting over Eve, a draw­ ing for Satan—without wings—is found on page 112 of Blake's Notebook.

Unfortunately, as Fuseli1s cartoon no longer exists, it is difficult to say whether the wings found in Tornado are Fuseli's invention or

Blake's improvisation.

Newton

Of all the images in Blake's 1795 print series, Newton (Fig.

6) is perhaps the most unexpected. It is something of a shock to see a symbolic portrait of the foremost, scientific thinker of the seven­ teenth century linked with conventional subject matter culled from the

Bible, Milton and Shakespeare. As bizarre as the choice seems, how­ ever, the selection of Newton suited Blake's purposes perfectly. As the deflner of a tidy, self-contained, mechanical universe, who else was better qualified to serve as the incarnation of the short-sighted, totally rational scientific being?

Blake was not anti-Science, but he despised it whenever the discipline became so ritualized as to deny the importance of imagina­ tion, mysticism or contradiction. Whereas Blake's universe was based on the dynamic and explosive interaction of contraries, Newton's was based on a fixed, unchangeable order. Blake saw this close-minded

21+Jackson, p. 76. Illustrated on p. 73. The figure of Satan could also have been inspired by the unfinished rendering of Death in Fuseli's The Lazar House. See Fig. 25. Figure 6. William Blake, Newton. — Tate Gallery. 23 inflexibility as "single vision" and summarized it best in The Book of

Urizen as:

One command, one joy, one desire, One curse, one weight, one measure, One King, one God, one Law.25

Although Blake based the form of Newton on the figure of Abias from Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling,26 the thematic conception for the design owes more to The Ancient of Days, Blake's well-known frontis­ piece to Europe: A Prophecy (Fig. 7).

Blake particularly favored the crouching or crawling figure in the 1790's. Its geometric compactness served as the perfect visual metaphor for the collapse of constructive creativity brought on by the exclusion of imagination.2^ In Blake's view, both the Creator of the

Universe and Newton suffered from this affliction. Each was so con­ cerned with the task at hand that neither was conscious of the unpro­ ductive void that surrounded him.28 The visually related "Application" proverb (Fig. 8) from Blake's early chapbook, There is No Natural

Religion, states the case well enough:

25Poetry, p. 71. 26Blunt, Art, p. 35.

2''Anne Kostelanetz, "Blake's 1795 Color Prints: An Interpre­ tation," in William Blake: Essays for S. Foster Damon, ed. by Alvin H. Rosenfeld (Providence: Brown University Press, 1969), pp. 117-123. Kostelanetz discusses Blake's iconographical use of closed and open forms and provides an inventory of hallmarks for each.

2®Sir Geoffrey Keynes has hypothesized that Newton is sitting at the bottom of the sea of materialism (Drawings, commentary to Plate 18), while John Gage has placed the scene in "the Cave of the neo- Platonic material world." ["Blake's Newton," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 34 (1971): 373.] The suggestion of anemonies on Newton's rock and the appearance of polyps behind his right leg seem to give greater support to Keynes's interpretation. iWii

Figure 8. William Blake, There Is No Natural Religion, "Application." — Figure 7. William Blake, Europe: A Prophesy, frontispiece. — Collection of Sir Geoffrey Keynes. British Museum. to •E- 25

He who sees the infinite in all things sees God. He who sees the ratio only sees himself only.29

The motif of the compass is prominantly displayed in several

of Blake's works. While he occasionally used the traditional incono-

graphical readings for this symbol, in the vast majority of cases, his

compasses are a negative attribute that symbolize the reduction of the

infinite to the finite.30

John Gage has hypothesized that Newton's compass combined with

the geometric figure at his feet forms a schematic representation of a

rainbow caught within a prism, and that as a rainbow is formed through

the division of white light, the motif is "one of the richest images

of materialism in Blake's art."31 As provocative as this theory appears, the supporting evidence is somewhat tenuous. Though the rain­ bow could conceivably be used as an attribute for Newton, contrary to

Gage's argument, Blake's rainbows are generally held to be symbols of hope rather than of death and materialism.If Gage's schematic read­ ing is correct, another interpretation is possible. Instead of slur­ ring the rainbow in general, Blake may be specifically belittling

Newton's scientific reduction of it from visual wonder to colorless geometry.

29Poetry, p. 2.

30Anthony Blunt, "Blake's 'Ancient of Days': The Symbolism of the Compasses," in The Visionary Hand; Essays for the Study of William Blake's Art and Aesthetics, ed. by Robert Essick (Los Angeles: Hennes­ sey and Ingalls, 1973), pp. 76-87. [Reprinted from the Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes II (1938): 53-63.]

31Gage, p. 376.

32Kostelanetz, p. 123. 26

Nebuchadnezzar

Nebuchadnezzar (Fig. 9) is one of Blake's most frequently reproduced works. Its nightmare landscape, its attention to realistic detail and its awkward but forceful anatomy make it a perfect example of what might be called Blake's proto-expressionist tendencies.

The Biblical source for the print is found in the fourth chap­ ter of the Book of Daniel, where God drives Nebuchadnezzar, King of

Babylon, mad for presuming to take sole credit for his earthly accom­ plishments. Reduced to his most beastial state, Nebuchadnezzar "was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws." His reason and position were restored to him after forty-nine months when he praised and honored the "King of Heaven."33

Like God Creating Adam, the conception for Nebuchadnezzar must have come early in the 1790's. There are two pencil sketches for the design in Blake's Notebook31* and a subsequent relief etching of it on

Plate 24 of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (Fig. 10).

While the initial visual source for the image seems to have been the small crawling figure in the background of Dlirer's engraving,

The Penance of St. John Chrysostom (Fig. II),36 Geoffrey Grigson has shown that the most important iconographical source for the print was

33Daniel, 4:30-37.

3^Notebook, Plates N44 and N48.

35Baker, p. 118. Figure 9. William Blake, Nebuchadnezzar. — Tate Gallery. Figure 10. William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, plate 24. — Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Figure 11. Albrecht DUrer, The Penance of Figure 12. John Hamilton Mortimer, St. John Chrysostom. — British Nebuchadnezzar Recovering Museum. his Reason. — British Museum. 30

John Hamilton Mortimer's engraving, Nebuchadnezzar Recovering his

Reason (Fig. 12).36

Because of the general similarity in appearance between

Nebuchadnezzar and Urizen, Blake's aged, bearded personification of

Reason, Erdman has interpreted the scene as "Reason losing his rea­

son."37 This analysis is too simplistic. Although it properly links

the materialist of Earth with the materialist of Heaven and condemns

them both, it overlooks the fact that Nebuchadnezzar and Urizen are

discrete personalities. For Blake, in fact, Urizen is the Old Testa­

ment's wrathful Elohim—Creator, Judge and Avenger—and Nebuchadnezzar the follower and victim of his strict and unnatural code of laws.

This interpretation allows for a greater interpolation of the original

Biblical source and explains why the "Nebuchadnezzar" print from The

Marriage of Heaven and Hell is captioned: "One Law for the Lion and the Ox is Oppression."

Lamech and his Two Wives

Lamech and his Two Wives (Figs. 13, 14) is probably the most obscure print of Blake's 1795 series. Certainly it is discussed less frequently than any of the others and by the nature of its uncommon subject matter, it has always been difficult to work into any coherent, iconographical schema. Most of this is due to the fact that the

36Geoffrey Grigson, "Painters of the Abyss," Architectural Review CVIII (1950): 218.

37David Erdman, Blake: Prophet Against Empire (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1954), pp. 177-178. Figure 13. William Blake, Lamech and his Two Wives (Tate Gallery) 32

Figure 14. William Blake, Lamech and his Two Wives (Collection of Robert Essick) 33 literary source for the print is a particularly troublesome Biblical passage, Genesis, 5:23-24.

23 And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice: ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.

24 If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.

This so-called "Song of Lamech" is a perfect example of the type of textual hybrid that is sprinkled throughout the early books of the Old Testament. The break in narrative and the shift in tone from one verse to the other is attributable to the uneasy synthesis of two separate traditions.38

Verse 23 is based on the Jewish legend of Lamech in which the blind but mighty hunter accidentally slays his great-grandfather, Cain, and then inadvertently kills his own son as well. When his wives dis­ cover him by the corpses that evening, they wish to desert him for they realize that all of CainTs descendants are doomed to annihilation.

However, Lamech argues, "If Cain, who committed murder of malace afore­ thought was punished only in the seventh generation, then I, who had no intention of killing a human being, may hope that retribution will be averted for seventy and seven generations."3®

38John Skinner, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Genesis (The International Critical Commentary on the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, New York: Charles Scribners and Sons, 1940), p. 122.

3®Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Bible (New York: Simon and SchuBter, 1956), p. 61. 34

While Verse 23 has its basis in a purely narrative tradition, the source of Verse 24 is more anthropological in content. Closely connected with earlier verses and chapters in Genesis, specifically those dealing with the founding of cities and the establishment of the arts and the various metal industries, the "Song of Lamech" of

Verse 24 signals the historical appearance of tribal blood vengeance.1^

According to Biblical tradition, this appalling form of revenge justice first appeared with Cain, and later in an intensified form with his descendant, the people of Lamech.1*1

Unfortunately, the identification of the two possible sources of inspiration does not help us to decide which tradition to accept as Blake's source for the print, and a severe lack of primary evidence makes it difficult to formulate a conclusive case for or against either side. The strongest evidence in support of the tradition of the acci­ dental killing of Lamech's son is found in the copy of the print now in the collection of Robert Essick (Fig. 14). Though narrative details such as the body of Cain and Lamech*s blindness have been overlooked,

Lamech seems to be genuinely upset at what has happened. In fact, it is difficult to look at the Essick print and detect any malice in his expression. The restrained, almost gentle quality seen in the lines of his face is more suggestive of compassion than of anger, especially when compared to the more angular treatment that gives the Tate Gal­ lery's version of the print (Fig. 13) such a sinister air.

1+0Skinner, p. 115.

11 ^he Book of Genesis, introduction and notes by S. R. Driver, (London: Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1943), p. 71. 35

Because the story of Lantech is drawn from the book of the Old

Testament in which the power of the retribution-hungry Elohim is at its peak, a somewhat stronger argument can be framed for the blood- vengeance reading of the scene. Blake's treatment of the basic narra­ tive situation seems to carry the suggestion of adultery as the motive for the slaying of the man at Lamech's feet. This interpretation would certainly appeal to Blake's sense of irony for, biblically,

Lamech is cited as the first polygamist. It would also allow for the more active involvement of Lamech's wives in the tragedy. Lamech, after all, addresses them as though he expects them to gain some per­ sonal insight from his actions.

It is significant to note that Blake chose to illustrate the story of Lamech and not that of Cain and Abel. He was not interested in using the primal scene of murder, but rather a more generalized scene, with a larger cast of characters and geneological allusions to provide a more universal example.

Hecate

Despite its somewhat exotic subject matter, its superior design, and its technical flourishes, Hecate (Fig. 15) has generally been overlooked by Blake enthusiasts. Scholars who have dealt with the 1795 series have found more immediate rewards in dealing with those prints which offer meatier opportunities for interpretation.

Hecate is usually lost in the shuffle.

Two Shakespearean quotations have been put forth as sources for the print—Puck's closing speech in A Midsummer Night's Dream: Figure 15. William Blake, Hecate. — Tate Gallery. 37

And we fairies that do run By the triple Hecate's team, From the presence of the sun, Following darkness like a dream. . . .41 and the witches' incantation from Macbeth:

Fillet of a fenny snake, In the caldron boil and bake; Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog, Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting, Lizard's leg and howlet's wing. . .

Of the two, the latter is the more probable. Puck's fleeting reference to the triple Hecate is hardly enough to warrant its inclu­ sion as a possible source, especially as the 1795 print already con­ tains so much Macbeth paraphernalia.

Although there is a drawing in reverse for the print in an

English private collection,^ there are no extant, developmental sketches tracing Blake's amazing visualization of the Mistress of

Sorcery. His particular representation of her as the three phases of the moon is apparently unique.45 Certainly it is difficult to find a comparable image in either medieval art or the work of Blake's contem­ poraries; and while classical sculptors occasionally represented

Hecate's tri-nature with three separate bodies joined at the back or

**2V, i, 390-393. k3IV, i, 12-17.

^Drawings., Plate 19.

**^Martin Butlin, A Catalogue of the Works of William Blake in the Tate Gallery (London: W. Heinemann, 1957), p. 43. Because of her traditional role as a lunar goddess, some late classical mythologists equated the three natures of Hecate with the three phases of the moon which signaled the celebration of certain of her rituals. See Lewis Richard Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, vol. II (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1896), pp. 551-553. 38 even as one body with multiple heads and sets of arms, these Hellenic types are invariably fashioned as standing figures with the goddesses' three faces addressing the spectator rather than turned inwards in a closed, noticeably geometric arrangement.46

Of the creatures included in the print, only the ass is not mentioned in the witches' spell. Blake borrowed this image from an engraving of The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, published in Alexander

Browne's Ars Pictoria in 1675 (Fig. 16).As the ass was sacred to both Dionysus and the Egyptian deity, Set, it was associated both with paganism and the demonic.48 Either of these connotations is suited to the iconography of Hecate.

In Blake's print, however, Hecate clearly stands for some­ thing more than simple paganism or superstition. She is the sinister element of any religion which is based on a collection of strict and unkeepable laws. Her book is the Ten Commandments as well as Urizen's

Book of Brass (Fig. 17).49 Her beliefs are built on ritual and dogma rather than on common sense and faith.

^Farnell, pp. 553-557.

1+7Baker, pp. 118-119.

'•^Robert Graves, The White Goddess (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1966), p. 278.

49 The thematic connection is made in the title page to The Book of Urizen (Fig. 17), where Blake's patriarch of the material world crouches on a codex similar to Hecate's while the Ten Command­ ments loom in the background. Figure 16. The Rest on the Flight into Egypt from Alexander Browne's Ars Pictoria. — Huntington Library. Figure 17. William Blake, The Book of Urizen, title page. — Rosenwald Collection, Library of Congress. Although Pity (Fig. 18) appears to be one of Blake's most cryp- tical images, it is actually one of the most accessible prints of the

1795 series. What seems to be a complex iconographical unit is in reality, quite simply, a literal representation of a quotation from

Macbeth:

And pity, like a naked newborn babe, Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, hors'd Upon the sightless couriers of the air, Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye. That tears shall drown the wind. . . .

This visual complement to Shakespeare's simile is one of

Blake's most successful designs. Two preliminary sketches as well as a small, monotyped, trial version of the print still exist (Figs. 19-

21); and unlike the extant drawings to the other 1795 prints, these preliminary cartoons can be used to trace the compositional develop­ ment of the final image.51

While many of the motifs found in Pity are to one degree or another variations of common Blake devices, the horses may have been borrowed from The Fall of Phaeton by George Stubbs (Fig. 28). Martin

Butlin has suggested this painting as the inspirational source for

God Judging Adam,52 but in the specific representation of the horse in the foreground, a much closer parallel can be made with Pity.

50I, vii, 21-25.

51See page 60 for a discussion of this evolution.

52Martin Butlin, William Blake, p. 60. Figure 18. William Blake, Pity. — Tate Gallery. Figure 19. William Blake, "Pity," first pencil drawing. — British Museum. Figure 20. William Blake, "Pity," second pencil drawing. — British Museum,

Figure 21. William Blake, "Pity," trial print. — British Museum. 45

Ruth and Naomi

Ruth and Naomi (Fig. 22) was almost certainly designed as a pendant piece to Lamech and His Two Wives. Each is drawn from a rela­ tively obscure Biblical passage; and, in at least one instance, they seem to have been sold as a pair. Both the Victoria and Albert Muse­ um's Ruth and the Tate Gallery's Lamech have had all four comers cut on the diagonal—presumably the "restoration" work of some early collector.

The story of Ruth was a favorite of Blake's. The Biblical account of her sacrifice appealed to his imagination; and he drew upon it several times during his career—using it as one of the 1795 designs, choosing it as one of the subjects for the series of Biblical watercolors commissioned by Thomas Butts in the early 1800"s and exhibiting a version of it in his public exhibition of 1809. The catalog which accompanied this exhibition carried the following description of the scene:

This design is taken from that most pathetic passage in the Book of Ruth, where Naomi [takes] leave of her daughters in law, with Intent to return to her own country; Ruth cannot leave her, but says, "Whither thou goest I will go; and where thou lodgest I will lodge, thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: where thou diest I will die, and there shall X be buried; God do so to me and more also, if ought but death part thee and me."55

Although the connection between the two is perhaps not immedi­ ately obvious, Ruth and Naomi is, thematically, closely affiliated with

Blake's print Pity. Both are representations of the same obsession—

S^Poetry, pp. 539-540. 46

Figure 22. William Blake, Ruth and Naomi. Victoria and Albert Museum. emotional compassion—with the latter cast in the image of universal icon and the former presented in the guise of moralistic archetype.

To the uninitiated the concept of Pity is one of Blake's most difficult abstractions. Though in the spiritual realm of Eternity it retains its usual positive associations, in the material world it is a negative virtue that continuously divides the soul.

Ruthfs sacrifice promotes just such a reduction. Since her act of contrition is the product of duty rather than of practicality, it does not result in psychic well-being. Though her decision is neither hypocritical nor evil, it still brings about a dissipation of spirit. Only when Pity works in conjunction with both the Mind and the Heart can it be the great reuniting force of the Universe.

The House of Death

Of all the 1795 prints, The House of Death (Fig. 23) is the most overtly horrific in its effect. Using the intricate description of the Lazar House from Paradise Lost (Book XX, 477-493) as his source of inspiration, Blake distilled the power of Milton's expansive imagin­ ings into a single, tight composition: attended by Despair, five figures twist in physical and mental torment as Death hovers overhead.

The scene is at once both tragic and ironic, demonstrating the power that is to be gained through the glorification of the fear of the unknown.

56From an etymological standpoint, Ruth can be translated as "compassion for the misery of others," as in Milton's, "Look homeward angel, now, with ruth." Figure 23, William Blake, The House of Death. — Tate Gallery. 49

As in the case of several of the other 1795 prints, the design for The House of Death first appeared as a pen and wash drawing in the early 1790's (Fig. 24). In this initial study, Blake paid tribute to his good friend, Henry Fuseli, by knowingly—and quite successfully, too—imitating his style.

Although there does not seem to have been any direct exchange of ideas between the two artists on the specific theme of the Lazar

House, their close friendship and the fact that Fuseli was hard at work on the paintings for his "Milton Gallery" at the same time sug­ gests that Blake may have been indirectly influenced in his initial selection of the episode for illustration. Fuseli's version of the scene (Fig. 25) is quite unlike Blake's, but this is not surprising as both artists were interested in achieving different effects. While

Fuseli was experimenting with the visual power of spectacle suggested by complicated action; Blake was intrigued by the scene's content and relied, instead, on a composition reduced to its essentials.

The image of Urizen with his arms outstretched and his beard flowing down is one of Blake's primary motifs. It first appears in

The Fertilization of Egypt, a plate engraved by Blake after a design by Fuseli for the first edition of Erasmus Darwin's The Botanic Garden

(1791). Blunt has shown that the image is ultimately based on a classical prototype, probably something similar to the Roman relief

5^The design has been attributed to Fuseli on several occa­ sions, but Butlin, on the basis of the stylistic evidence of the reclining figures, has shown that it is Blake's work. See Catalogue, p. 44. Figure 24. William Blake, The Lazar House. Tate Gallery.

Figure 25. Henry Fuseli, The Lazar House. Kunsthaus, Zurich. 51 of Jupiter Pluvius illustrated in Bernard de Montfaucon's Antiquity

Explained (London, 1721-1722).58

God Judging Adam

Until 1965 and Martin Butlin's discovery of a partially erased inscription on the bottom border of the Tate Gallery's copy of the print, God Judging Adam (Figs. 26, 27) was known as Elijah Mounted in the Fiery Chariot.59 The scene was thought to have represented Elijah delivering the mantle of inspiration to his successor, Elisha (2 Kings,

2:11-13). The misappellation was first applied in a Sotheby's sale catalog in April, 1862, and was formalized the following year with the publication of the first edition of Alexander Gilchrist's Life of

William Blake.60

A clear prototype for the print exists in a watercolor pro­ duced by Blake in the early 1790's.61 It has been argued that this version of the scene actually represents the final meeting between

Elijah and Elisha and that Blake simply borrowed the composition for his 1795 print. This seems unlikely, for although the atmosphere in the watercolor is not nearly as oppressive as it is in the print,

58Blunt, Art, p. 41 and Plate 25c.

59Martin Butlin, "Blake's 'God Judging Adam' Rediscovered," in The Visionary Hand: Essays for the Study of William Blake's Art and Aesthetics, ed. by Robert Essick (Los Angeles: Hennessey and Ingalls, 1973), pp. 305-306. [Reprinted from The Burlington Magazine 107 (1965); pp. 86, 89.]

60Ibid., 306.

®*Reproduced in Butlin's William Blake, p. 61. Figure 26. William Blake, God Judging Adam (Tate Gallery) Figure 27. William Blake, God Judging Adam (Philadelphia Museum of Art) 54 there is 110 representation of the Chariot of Fire, either. The would- be Elijah is surrounded by clouds instead of by flames.62

In addition to the watercolor, Butlin has advanced George

StubbsTs The Fall of Phaeton (Fig. 28) as a possible source for the design; and while he admits that it provides "an extraordinary but possibly unwitting parallel,"63 the comparisons which can be made between the two are close enough to suggest that Blake was at least familiar with the painting.

By carefully studying the reduction of pigment from pull to pull, Butlin has also been able to determine the order in which the prints were produced. This knowledge is quite instructive as it emphasizes the practical importance of variation from print to print within the limited series. The first and second states of God Judging

Adam—now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Tate Gallery, respectively—are nearly identical and show a comparatively limited use of ink and watercolor touch-up work. The third state (Fig. 27)— in the Philadelphia Museum of Art—on the other hand, required a great deal more hand finishing than either of the other two and displays added iconographical significance because of it.64 In this final print, Blake darkened the background, enhancing the effect of God's ball of fire and drawing attention to its inability to produce the light and heat of inspiration. For Blake, the free form of flames

62Butlin, William Blake, p. 61.

63Ibid., p. 60.

6l*Ibid., pp. 60-61. Figure 28. George Stubbs, The Fall of Phaeton. — Private collection. 56 was a primary symbol of energy and imagination.6® When enclosed or stifled, however, in this case by the book of laws which rests in God's lap, the potential for beneficial creation disappears and only a dark void remains.

Christ Appearing

If The House of Death is the 1795 series at its most disheart­ ening, Christ Appearing (Fig. 29) is the series at its most uplifting.

Indeed, the design is the only one of the twelve to even suggest the possibility of escape from the closed-system tyranny of the material world.

Inspired by the Gospels, the scene nominally represents

Christ's miraculous materialization to the Apostles after the Resur­ rection. The most detailed account of this appearance is found in the twenty-fourth chapter of Luke:

36 And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and sayith unto them, Peace be unto you.

37 But they were terrified and affrighted, and sup­ posed that they had seen a spirit.

38 And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?

39 Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.

40 And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet.

65Butlin, William Blake, p. 60; Kostelanetz, pp. 121-123. Figure 29. William Blake, Christ Appearing. — Yale University Art Gallery. 58

Although the print follows Luke's description with reasonable accuracy, it would be wrong to assume that Blake meant for us to see the image as a specific narrative event. Like so many of the other

1795 prints, Christ Appearing is important foremost as an icon. Thus,

Blake did not think it necessary to present all twelve Apostles, each with his distinguishing and differentiating hallmarks. It was enough to evoke the ambience of the scene and leave it at that.

After the predominantly negative complexion of the rest of the series, the sudden emergence in Christ Appearing of a more reassuring subject matter has led to some confusion. Most writers, in fact, are puzzled by the relationship of the print to the rest of the series.

Anne Kostelanetz explained the positive shift in subject matter by hypothesizing that the print is a post-1800 addition to the series;66 and Martin Butlin suspects that the print has some darker, less obvi­ ously optimistic reading.67

If the design is studied geometrically, like the rest of the prints, however, the message of Hope is quite clear. While it cannot be denied that the closed-form bodies grovelling at Christ's feet are living in error, the one man kneeling and looking into His face, has just as certainly been saved from the false doctrine of Urizen's domain. By seeing Christ as He really is, as the undivided man, he alone is free from the terror prophesized in The House of Death.

66Kostelanetz, p. 129

67Butlin, William Blake, p. 65. CHAPTER 3

PROBLEMS OF DATING

A date of 1795 is for all practical purposes perfectly ade­ quate for any general study of Blake's series of large, color-printed drawings. A minimum of one copy each of nine of the twelve designs is so inscribed in Blake's own hand and no example with any other date has ever been traced. For an in-depth study such as this, however, certain considerations should be aired which suggest the possibility that Pity, Hecate and Ruth and Naomi were printed at a later date.

It should be understood that although Blake's system of dating was never haphazard, it was rather peculiar. As a great believer in symbolic chronologies, Blake frequently dated his work from the moment of inspiration rather than from the actual time of completion.68 It is not uncommon for his plates, first engraved and printed in the early 1790's, to appear reworked after 1800 with the earlier date intact.69 Because of this, even handwritten dates are suspect and should not be taken absolutely literally.

Although no study has really addressed the problem of the order of execution within the 1795 series, there is a general belief among Blake scholars that Pity was the first design to be printed.7®

6®See David Erdman, "William Blake's Exactness in Dates," Print Quarterly, XXVIII (1949): 466-467.

69Essick, pp. 178-197.

7^Butlin, William Blake, p. 63.

59 60

The primary evidence for this—two pencil sketches and a small, color version of the final design—is now in the British Museum (Figs. 19-

21). An analysis of these early studies seems to show that the ini­ tial composition was built on the vertical, was then adapted to the horizontal and was finally trial-printed using the monotype tech­ nique.71 Apparently Blake was not happy with the results, for he had barely started the watercolor and ink finishing work when he abandoned the print—presumably realizing how much more powerful the design would look on a larger scale.

This interpretation of the evidence, however, may not be entirely trustworthy, for contrary to what one would expect, Pity in its finished form is one of the most accomplished prints of the series—not only stylistically but also technically, as well. The

Tate Gallery impression especially shows a balance between the tex­ tured pigment of the foreground and the flat bodycolor of the back­ ground that is quite amazing. The achievement is such, in fact, that the Tate's copies of Satan Exulting over Eve, Lamech and his Two Wives and even The Good and Evil Angels pale in comparison.

Another troubling consideration is the elongated figural style that appears in all three of the preliminary studies. This peculiar­ ity of drawing is not generally seen in Blake's artistic output of the mid-1790's, being most usually associated with his work of 1803-1805.72

The situation is complicated by the fact that in the final versions of

Pity the proportions are comparable to those found in the other 1795

71Butlin, William Blake, p. 62. 72Ibid., p. 89. 61

prints. This change in style from conception to execution could be

attributable to either the normal evolutionary process of design or to

a deliberate return to an earlier canon. Though the latter hypothesis

is perhaps less likely, it is also the most provocative, for it sug­

gests the possibility that Pity is a late addition to the series. If

this is the case, the trial print would probably have been pulled in

1803, recognized as a thematically viable addition to the original in-

conographical structure and reworked on a larger scale with the earlier

proportions in order to conform with the other prints of the series.

This proposition is quite revolutionary for no example of

Blake's color monotypes has ever been successfully dated to after

1800, and the acceptance of a late date for Pity implies an equally late date for the closely related visual image of Hecate and the closely related iconographical image of Ruth and Naomi. A post-1800 dating for Ruth and Naomi, in turn, suggests a direct link between the color print and Blake's 1803 watercolor, Ruth the Dutiful Daughter-

In-Law. With a similar date in mind, a comparison of these two works is quite illuminating, especially as the pseudo-neoclassical style that is found in the watercolor is surprisingly close to the peculiar, elongated style that is found in the preliminary designs to Pity.

A somewhat less controversial theory to explain the variable quality that exists from print to print within the series has been recently advanced by Robert Essick. Essick believes that instead of hand finishing each of the designs at the time of printing in 1795,

Blake waited until he had a firm commitment from a buyer before 62 undertaking the time-consuming task.75 The actual, final dating of the various states for any given print, therefore, would be spread over many years.

Unfortunately, while this hypothesis may help to settle the questions posed by such nagging ambiguities as diverse iconographies and variant signatures, it provides no help in specifically dating the separate states. A close, physical examination of each image is required before this can be attempted and the global dispersion of the majority of the prints in the series makes the task a difficult and financially exhausting venture.

From the prints now located in London, however, it is possible to compose a representative sampling. The Tate Gallery has examples of eleven of the designs and the Victoria and Albert Museum has a copy of the twelfth. Nine of the Tate's prints—The Good and Evil Angels,

God Creating Adam, Newton, Nebuchadnezzar, Lamech and his Two Wives,

Hecate, Pity, The House of Death and God Judging Adam—and probably the Victoria and Albert's Ruth and Naomi, as well, were all originally in the collection of Thomas Butts. As Butts was Blake's most impor­ tant early patron and seemingly the first of his supporters to pur­ chase any of the 1795 designs, Blake made sure that he received superior examples of his work. In fact, all ten prints are among the finest that Blake produced and are perfect for what is admittedly a subjective analysis.

75Essick, pp. 124, 132. On the basis of the sophistication of the finished image, these tien specific prints can be grouped and ranked as follows:

1. God Creating Adam, The Good and Evil Angels, The House of

Death. These three prints are so heavily worked in water-

color and ink that very little of the initial printed image

shines through. The overriding Impression is that of looking

at paintings or, in the case of God Creating Adam, a rubbed

pastel drawing.

2. God Judging Adam. Here the printed image is dominant, pro­

viding distinct boundaries for the watercolor finishing work.

The reticulation of the printed areas is quite obvious and

almost detracts from the unity of the rest of the image.

3. Lamech and his Two Wives, Ruth and Naomi. A balance between

the printed pigment and the watercolor additions is achieved

but at the expense of both. Although the innate qualities of

each are evident, the complete equalization of effects

results in a curiously unimpressive synthesis.

4. Newton, Nebuchadnezzar, Hecate, Pity. The balance between

printing and hand finishing is maintained but each is allowed

to dominate specific areas of the image (e.g., the tacky

printing medium so evident in Newton's rocky seat, or the

opaque watercolor background of Pity). This alternation of

textures provides depth and enlivens the image considerably. 64

By arranging the prints in this order, we are presumably tracing Blake's growing awareness of the niceties of his new monotype process as well as his gradual development of a full range of techni­ cal tricks. If this systematization is correct, it is logical to assume that no matter in which order they were originally printed, the designs of Groups 1 and 2 were finished before those of Group 3 which, in turn, were finished before those of Group 4.

Notwithstanding Essick's argument, it is likely that Blake would have had enough initial enthusiasm for his project to finish fully at least a few of the designs as soon as they were pulled.

Accordingly, the prints of Groups 1 and 2 probably actually date to

1795.

The prints of Groups 3 and 4 are a little more difficult to place, but for the former, at least, certain pecularities of execu­ tion call for a date closer to the turn of the century. The more assured handling of the ink and watercolor finishing work suggests that the prints were completed in the late 1790's; but the use of gold paint in the halos in Ruth and Naomi may push the date past

1800.

For the prints of Group 4, a date of after 1803 seems rea­ sonable. A fine, stripple brushwork technique that Blake learned while at Felpham can be seen in all four prints, but especially in

Newton.74 In addition, a white-line scratch technique that appears

7ttEssick, p. 132. 65

in Hecate and Pity may Indicate that both of these prints were com­

pleted after all of the others, and possibly as late as 1805.75

The preceding analysis is, of course, only hypothetical.

Although it provides a tidy explanation for Blake's development of

new techniques and perceptions, there is no way to truly prove the

dates that have been suggested. Ten closely connected works are not

really enough to establish a stylistic evolution, especially when

there are so many random variables operating. Blake was famous for

his uneven craftsmanship. The quality of his finished productions was, quite understandably, dependent upon such considerations as

time available, money received in payment and personal interest in

the project. Any or all of these could—and did—affect the outcome of a commission. It is therefore difficult to say with certainty

that his most "advanced" works are also his latest ones.

75This technique, which involves scratching through pigment to expose white paper beneath, is best seen in the rainstorm in the background of Pity. Since the process produces such a fine, expres­ sive line, it is difficult to believe that Blake would not have used it in any of the other prints had he discovered it at an earlier date. The only other extant example of the technique appears in the color- printed version of Albion Rose now in the British Museum. Although Erdman proposes a date of 1796-97 for the initial printing ["The Dating of William Blake's Engravings," Philological Quarterly 31 (1952):337-343], the finishing work may not have been completed until much later, for the earliest documentation for this particular state of the print appears in Blake's 1818 letter to Dawson Taylor. CHAPTER 4

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

The surprising lack of scholarly discussion on Blake's 1795

print series has already been mentioned, and while this paucity of

critical analysis hampers initial research, it assures a relatively easy task in summarizing and assessing those accounts which have appeared.

One of the earliest and most important of these is found in

Anthony Blunt's The Art of William Blake.76 Although Blunt's cover­

age of the 1795 series is superficial, his initial attempts to relate

the prints to the texts of other, more obvious Blake narratives

established a strategy that has been followed by later studies. In addition, his view that the series should be seen as a narrative sequence tracing the history of man from his Creation and Fall to the effects of his disobedience on his environment has also proved to be a most influential theory and has been incorporated into any of a number of survey books. This is regrettable, for judged by today's standards, the analysis is actually rather dated. God Judging Adam is identified as Elijah and the Fiery Chariot, The Good and Evil

Angels is dismissed as "obscure" and Christ Appearing is ignored altogether.

76Blunt, pp. 58-62.

66 67

To date, only Anne Kostelanetz has taken any real initiative

in reworking Blunt's basic methodology.77 By adopting his general

narrative approach and incorporating her own study of Blake's

iconographical use of closed and open forms, she has contributed a

more realized argument by stressing Blake's essentially negative view

of the material world. God Creating Adam and Satan Exulting over Eve

are interpreted as Man's initial fall from Eternity and God Judging

Adam as his actual expulsion from the earthly Paradise. As with

Blunt, the evil by-products of the Urizenic creation appear in the

next six prints: Nebuchadnezzar (political tyranny), Newton (the

triumph of reason), Hecate (the ascendancy of superstition), The Good

and Evil Angels ("the restraint of all energy, both of the child and

of the adult"), The House of Death (sickness) and Lamech and his Two

Wives (murder). Because Ruth and Naomi and Pity demonstrate the

natural pity of one man for another ("the imagination's submission

to the restrictive, closed rule of reason"), they are seen as the

cause of man's fall and Christ Appearing with its implicit message

of eternal salvation as "the final solution to the problem of the

fall into a limited body."

Although Kostelanetz's analysis is more carefully constructed

than Blunt*s, it suffers from the same type of short-sightedness.

The simple, linear, chronological approach is inadequate for anything

more than the most basic of organizational schemas. By emphasizing

purely narrative relationships, such important considerations as

77Kostelanetz, pp. 123-130. compositional and thematic parallels are overlooked and the series is reduced to what ultimately proves to be its most obvious and least Interesting form.

The work of Martin Butlin provides a direct contrast to this situation. As the author of several catalogs and booklets for the

Tate Gallery, he has been more intimately involved with the 1795 prints than most other Blake scholars. Essentially an archivist interested in the study of separate works, Butlin has sought to remain neutral on questions of programmatical interpretations, pre­ ferring "to leave detailed disucssion of iconography to the experts."

Nevertheless, his insights into the working of the series on the individual level are quite illuminating and his observations of compositional linkages has led him to suggest, in passing, that the prints should be visually paired as follows: God Creating Adam and and Satan Exulting over Eve, Newton and Nebuchadnezzar, Hecate and

Pity, Lamech and his Two Wives and Ruth and Naomi, The House of Death and Christ Appearing and The Good and Evil Angels and God Judging

Adam.78 Unfortunately, beyond a few, casual, programmatic explana­ tions (e.g., Newton and Nebuchadnezzar as the two masculine Natures;

God Judging Adam and The Good and Evil Angels as representations of the negative effects of the imposition of Urizen's One Law), Butlin has never attempted a comprehensive reading for the series as a whole.

?8Martin Butlin, "Thoughts on the 1978 Tate Gallery Exhibi­ tion," Blakej_An_Illust^ vol. 13, no. 1 (Summer 1979) 22. 69

The most recent and in many ways the most atypical study of the 1795 prints comes from Jenijoy La Belle, a long-time associate of Robert Essick. La Belle argues that Blake created the basic pro­ gram for his series by parodying that of Michaelangelo's Sistine

Ceiling.79 Thus, Michaelangelo's panels devoted to the Creation and

Fall Inspired God Creating Adam, Satan Exulting over Eve and God

Judging Adam, The House of Death is Blake's version of The Deluge,

Nebuchadnezzar, his parallel to The Drunkenness of Noah and The Good and Evil Angels, a summarization of The Separation of Light from

Darkness, The Separation of Heaven from the Water and The Creation of the Sun and the Moon. In addition, Hecate and Newton fulfill the roles of Michelangelo'8 Sibyls and Prophets, respectively, Lamech and his Two Wives, Ruth and Naomi and Pity "follow conceptually Michel­ angelo's corner spandrels," and Christ Appearing provides "an answer to the problems of material and spiritual bondage presented in the other eleven color-prints."

La Belle's theory is interesting but shows serious weaknesses under close analysis. Although it is obvious that both artists drew their inspiration from the same, basic Christian traditions, there are not a convincing number of parallels to tie Blake's visions directly to Michelangelo's. La Belle's comparison of the two artists'

Creation images, for example, is tempting but not very exacting. Her

79Jenijoy La Belle, "Michelangelo's Sistine Frescoes and Blake's 1795 Color-Printed Drawings: A Study in Structural Relation­ ships," Blake; An Illustrated Quarterly, vol. 14, no. 2 (Fall 1980): 66-84. Although Blake had no first-hand knowledge of Michelangelo's achievements, engravings of his work were available in England. primary visual evidence—Gabriel's arm in The Expulsion compared with

Urizen's arm in God Judging Adam— is only superficially impressive.

It could just as easily be an example of casual borrowing as a com­ plicated thematic link.

Another troubling aspect of her theory is the programmatic separation of Newton and Nebuchadnezzar. Certainly the compositional similarity between the two is strong enough to suggest that they per­ form some related function. Likewise, it is difficult to see the justification for the pairing of the non-narrative image of Pity with the intensely narrative representations of Lamech and his Two Wives and Ruth and Naomi.

La Belle's greatest success comes in showing that the pro­ grams of both the 1795 series and the Sistine Ceiling consist of a linear, core narrative surrounded by "actions and characters related thematically to the core." Just because both artists used a similar arrangement, however, does not prove that Blake was actively borrow­ ing from Michelangelo. In fact, La Belle's argument is at its strongest when she suggests that Blake may not have consciously modelled his 1795 series on the program of the Sistine Ceiling, being merely indirectly influenced by it instead.

If there is a common fault to all of the attempts made so far to analyze the 1795 series, it would have to be a lack of scope.

In general, interest in the prints has been so particularized and so inflexible that the wider perspective needed to understand the series as a whole has been overlooked—as has the time frame in which the series was created. The 1790's were pivotal years for Blake, for 71 not only were they the time of great personal activity, but also

years of cataclysmic change. A decade which began with exhuberance

and promise ended in personal, economic and political disappoint­

ment. Fortunately, the 1795 prints fall within the first stage of

Blake's career, before the socio-political disasters of the late

1790's forced him to withdraw behind the increasingly personal and complex iconography that is found in his later epics. This simpli­

fies matters of interpretation greatly but not entirely, for even in

its earliest stage of development, Blake's cosmological system was

built on paradox and irony—a situation that has frustrated even

ardent admirers of such readily understandable works as The Songs of

Innocence and The Songs of Experience. Host readers are reluctant to step beyond the sublime lyricism of these early poems and attempt the more challenging theology of slightly later productions. This, how­ ever, is essential for our study here, for Blake's literary goal of

the early 1790's was the creation of a vast, encyclopedic account of the spiritual, cosmological and political development of mankind.

The 1795 series must be viewed as a visual accompaniment to this

grand project if it is to be interpreted fully and correctly.

The most succinct summary of Blake's pre-1800 doctrine is

found in two of his illuminated texts, The Marriage of Heaven and

Hell (1790-93), a collection of proverbs and anecdotes which set forth the operating precepts of his universe, and The Book of Urizen

(1794), an alternate account of the Biblical Creation and the early history of man. Although both these works are filled with apparent inconsistencies and novel redefinitions of terms and concepts, beyond 72 the complicated verbiage, Blake is quite logical in the establishment of his cosmos.

Man exists as One in Eternity.

There there is no question of gender, rationality or emotion­ alism, only a divine synthesis of these elements functioning as a harmonious whole.

When the balance of Eternity is disturbed, division occurs and various spiritual traits take on material form and fall into lower, less productive levels of existence. URIZEN, the embodiment of Reason, is the first to fall from grace. His great pride turns him away from the glories of Eternity and toward the empty void.

Here he solidifies, invents measurement and creates his own self- contained universe. Probing the abyss with a pair of golden com­ passes, he pulls the Earth into being and populates it with his sons and daughters.

Other immortals soon follow Urizen into the state of genera­ tion. The most important of these, LOS, the imaginative principle, is so dismayed at what he sees that his female emanation, ENITHARMON, takes on material form and Pity comes into being. The beneficial effects of imagination and compassion, however, go almost unnoticed in the wasteland of reason. Urizen rules strongly, but not wisely, for he controls and terrorizes his progeny with the false laws of

Science and Religion.

This is the world in which the 1795 series is set. The world of Newton, Locke and Bacon; the world of organized religion, of super­ stition and God's inhumanity to Man. CHAPTER 5

INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS

In beginning to consider our own programmatical analysis of the 1795 designs, it is important to remember that Blake's vision was multi-faceted and that he prided himself on his elaborate use of < puns, parallelisms and allusions. In turn, he despised inflexibility of thought. The task attempted here, therefore, is to take the 1795 prints and create a framework for them that can be used to facilitate a multitude of interpretations. We should, quite simply, provide an iconographical arrangement that not only presents the series as a whole but also details the various inter-relationships of the dis­ crete parts, as well.

Although this may seem to be a major undertaking, it is actu­ ally quite straightforward. Most of the basic relationships between the prints have been established in the first half of this paper and these linkages can be used to extrapolate the other parallels needed to complete the pattern. In addition, if The Good and Evil Angels is selected as the opening statement of the series, it can be used to organize thematically the reBt of the prints, resulting in the schematic arrangement postulated in Appendix B.

The theme of The Good and Evil Angels is Reason vs. Emotion

(Energy). As we have discovered earlier, this is one of Blake's primary dichotomies of the material world. It is also the dominant

73 74 philosophical motif of the 1795 series and is crucial to the full interpretation of the prints that follow it.

While The Good and Evil Angels has certain, strong narrative elements, it should be thought of primarily as an icon. The scene is symbolic and not a representation of any specific event. Blake has taken the character, Han, has cast him in the role of inexperienced infant and has given each of his two basic personality traits,

Reason and Emotion, a human shape and an elemental familiar (Water and Fire, respectively). The print, in short, serves as prologue, enumerating the basic parameters of human make-up and establishing the material plane of existence in which the rest of the series is set.

In the directly related images of God Creating Adam and Satan

Exulting over Eve, the strict allegorical construct of The Good and

Evil Angels gives way to a more complex, literary treatment. The evil angel has been replaced by God (Elohim/Urizen) and the good angel by his freer, more imaginative counterpart, Satan. The child, who previously existed in a state of eternal innocence, has fallen into the realm of worldly experience and has, in the process, been divided into Adam and Eve (Los and Enltharmon).

This pivotal division of the sexes is presented in absolute terms, as personifications, in the next four prints. Newton is designated as the rational, masculine principle (Science) and Hecate as the rational, feminine principle (False Religion/Superstltltion).

Nebuchadnezzar is depicted as an emotional man-beast totally devoid of reason and Pity as an impulsive force of nature. 75

The interaction of Reason and Emotion is studied in Lamech

and his Two Wives and Ruth and Naomi. The former shows the emotional

horror felt by Adah and Zillah when they are confronted by Elohim's strict system of revenge justice; and the latter balances Naomi's

reasonable argument against Ruth's emotional sense of duty. Because

both prints stress the narrative over the allegorical, there is a

de-emphasis of the clear-cut, role-playing relationships offered in

the preceding prints. The characters are presented less as symbols and more as actual human beings and the scenes, themselves, serve as case histories complementing Blake's allegorical arguments.

The disastrous effects of the material world's influence on

the human spirit are depicted in the next two prints. In God Judging

Adam, Man has succumbed to Elohim/Urizen's false doctrine of Reason and has become a totally subservient, mirror image of the evil force he has come to regard as Savior. In The House of Death, the follow­ ers of Elohim/Urizen's natural religion write in terror with thoughts of the illusionary Hell that he has taught them to fear. The prints

present a deliberately bleak view of Man's ultimate place in the

universe for both are representations of Elohim/Urizen's false rule

of obedience—submission or damnation.

It is not until Christ Appearing, the narrative and thematic resolution of the series, that the hope of true salvation is intro­ duced. Here, at last, the undivided child of The Good and Evil

Angels reappears in adult form as Christ. No longer an innocent abroad, he has survived his material division to become a stronger and more mature individual. His presence promises (for at least one 76

of his companions) a oneness of spirit and a return to the joys of

Eternity long since forgotten.

Although the conflict between Reason and Emotion provides the

major, new organizational force for this reading of the 1795 prints,

several of the theories that appear in the incomplete interpretations

of Blunt, Kostelanetz, Butlin and La Belle have been adapted and

incorporated as well. The influence of Blunt and Kostelanetz appears

primarily in the strong narrative line of God Creating Adam, Satan

Exulting over Eve, Lantech and his Two Wives, Ruth and Naomi, God

Judging Adam, The House of Death and Christ Appearing. To this

predominantly Biblical chronology, The Good and Evil Angels has been

added as a foreword to provide a direct link between Blake's own

mythology and Judeo/Christian history.

It must be emphasized that, though pronounced, this narrative

core plays a rather limited thematic role in the series. With the

exception of Lamech and his Two Wives and Ruth and Naomi, two, very specific Biblical scenes, the narrative sequence of the series is

rather diffuse. Blake is looking for the universal, not the particu­

lar. By blurring narrative details, he stresses the iconic side of

the image and storytelling becomes secondary to message.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in Newton, Nebuchadnezzar,

Hecate and Pity. Like Michelangelo and La Belle's Sibyls and Proph­ ets, these strict personifications support the other 1795 prints by

defining the four, absolute types of human character. Though these images are tangential to the narrative line, they are an integral 77

part of the Reason vs. Emotion dichotomy that provies the real sub­

stance of the series.

The continual comparing and contrasting of these two sides

of human nature is what really interests Blake. Butlin's ponderings,

in particular, show some vague understanding of this point but do

not carry the argument to its logical extreme. His pairing of Newton

and Nebuchadnezzar, for example, establishes the psychological,

masculine opposites but overlooks their thematic connections to

Hecate and Pity, the psychological, feminine opposites. Although

Butlin's pairings provide a useful breakdown of the series, much more

meaningful relationships come to light if the prints are presented

in larger groupings. Thus, the series seems to work more efficiently

if The Good and Evil Angels, God Creating Adam and Satan Exulting

over Eve are viewed as one unit, Newton, Nebuchadnezzar, Hecate, Pity,

Lamech and his Two Wives and Ruth and Naomi as another and The House

of Death, God Judging Adam and Christ Appearing as a third. The

first group defines the environment in which the series is placed

and details the introduction of Man into the material world, the

second catalogs his subsequent degradation and the consequences of

this de-evolution and the third sets the stage for his ultimate

escape into a higher, more productive level of existence.

From the standpoint of pure mechanics, then, Blake's 1795

print series consists of several overlapping structures. The most obvious of these—though not necessarily the most important—is a

three-part, narrative line that combines Blake's mythology and

Biblical history. This central core is enhanced by four allegorical representations that obliquely comment on the narrative and allow for the division of the series along physiological (Male and Female) and psychological (Reason and Emotion) lines.

By recognizing this general arrangement and accepting these basic divisions, secondary relationships between the prints become more obvious and accessible. The heretofore abstract, sexual and psychological linkages that tie together Newton, Nebuchadnezzar,

Hecate and Pity become concrete and the pivotal..maturation of Man's spirit found in the comparison of The Good and Evil Angels and

Christ Appearing at last becomes clear.

It is important to understand that Blake intended his series to be hopeful rather than disheartening; educational rather than simply aesthetically pleasing. In his resolutely optimistic theology,

Man's fall from Eternity, though regretable, is necessary, for through Experience a more fully realized Eternity can be achieved.

The path from Eternal Innocence to Eternal Experience is circular and is predestined. The degradation of the human spirit through division is a necessary evil for the ultimate eternal being is stronger for the conflict. APPENDIX A

BLAKE'S 1795 PRINTS: EXTANT STATES

AND PRESENT LOCATIONS

The Good and Evil Angels

1. Tate Gallery, London (Figure 1).

2. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney.

God Creating Adam

1. Tate Gallery,. London (Figure 3).

Satan Exulting Over Eve

1. Tate Gallery, London (Figure 5).

2. Collection of John Craxton.

Newton

1. Tate Gallery, London (Figure 6).

2. Philadelphia Museum of Art (on loan from the Lutheran Church

of America).

Nebuchadnezzar

1. Tate Gallery, London (Figure 9).

2. Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

3. Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Lamech and His Two Wives

1. Tate Gallery, London (Figure 13).

2. Collection of Robert Essick (Figure 14).

79 Hecate

1. Tate Gallery, London (Figure 15).

2. National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh.

3. Huntington Library, San Marino.

Pity

1. Tate Gallery, London (Figure 18).

2. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

3. Yale Center for British Art/Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven.

Ruth and Naomi

1. Victoria and Albert Museum, London (Figure 22).

2. English private collection.

The House of Death

1. Tate Gallery, London (Figure 23).

2. British Museum, London.

3. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

God Judging Adam

1. Tate Gallery, London (Figure 26).

2. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

3. Philadelphia Museum of Art (Figure 27).

Christ Appearing

1. Tate Gallery, London.

2. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven (Figure 29). APPENDIX B

PROPOSED SCHEMATIC FOR BLAKE'S 1795 PRINT

SERIES EMPHASIZING HIS DICHOTOMY OF REASON

AND EMOTION

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SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Blake, William. The Letters of William Blake. Edited by Sir Geoffrey Keynes. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1956.

. The Notebook of William Blake: A Photographic and Typographic Facsimile. Edited by David Erdman and Donald Moore. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973.

. The Poetry .and Prose of William Blake. Edited by David Erdman. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1965.

Blunt, Anthony. The Art of William Blake. New York: Columbia University Press, 1959.

. "Blake's 'Ancient of Days': The Symbolism of the Compasses," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes II (1938): 53-63. [Reprinted in The Visionary Hand: Essays for the Study of William Blake's Art and Aesthetics, ed. by Robert Essick (Los Angeles: Hennessey and Ingalls, 1973), pp. 76-87].

. "Blake's Pictorial Imagination," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes VI (1943): 190-212.

The Book of Genesis. Introduction and notes by S. R. Driver, D. D. London: Methuen and Company, Ltd., 1943.

Bronowski, J. William Blake and the Age of Revolution. New York: Harper & Row, 1969.

Butlin, Martin. "Blake's 'God Judging Adam' Rediscovered," The Burlington Magazine CVII (1965): 86-89. [Reprinted in The Visionary Hand: Essays for the Study of William Blake's Art and Aesthetics, ed. by Robert Essick (Los Angeles: Hennessey and Ingalls, 1973), pp. 305-306.]

83 84

Butlin, Martin. A Catalogue of the Works of William Blake in the Tate Gallery. London: W. Heinemann, 1957.

. "The Evolution of Blake's Large Color Prints of 1795." In William Blake: Essays for S. Foster Damon. Edited by Alvin H. Rosenfeld. Providence: Brown University Press, 1969, pp. 109-116.

. "Thoughts on the 1978 Tate Gallery Exhibition," Blake: An Illustrated Quarterly, vol. 13, no. 1 (Summer 1979): 16-23.

. William Blake. London: The Tate Gallery, 1978.

Damon, S. Foster. A Blake Dictionary. Boulder: Shambhala Publications Inc., 1979.

Erdman, David. Blake: Prophet Against Empire. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1954.

. "The Dating of William Blake's Engravings," Philological Quarterly 31 (1952): 337-343.

. "William Blake's Exactness in Dates." Print Quarterly XXVIII (1949): 466-467.

Essick, Robert N., ed. The Visionary Hand: Essays for the Study of William Blake's Art and Aesthetics. Los Angeles: Hennessey and Ingalls, 1973.

. William Blake, Printmaker. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980.

Famell, Lewis Richard. The Cults of the Greek States. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1896.

Gage, John. "Blake's Newton," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 34 (1971): 372-377.

Gilchrist, Alexander. The Life of William Blake. Edited by W. Graham Robertson. London: John Lane the Bodley Head Ltd., 1906.

Ginzberg, Louis. Legends of the Bible. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1956.

Graves, Robert. The White Goddess. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1966.

Jackson, Mary. "Blake and Zoroastrianism," Blake: An Illustrated Quarterly, vol. 11, no. 2 (1977): 72-85. 85

Keynes, Sir Geoffrey. Drawings of William Blake: 92 Pencil Studies. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1970.

Klonsky, Milton. William Blake: The Seer and his Visions. New York Harmony Books, 1977.

Kostelanetz, Anne. "Blake's 1795 Color Prints: An Interpretation." In William Blake: Essays for S. Foster Damon. Edited by Alvin H. Rosenfeld. Providence: Brown University Press, 1969. pp. 117-123.

La Belle, Jenijoy. "Michelangelo's Sistine Frescoes and Blake's 1795 Color-Printed Drawings: A Study in Structural Relation­ ships," Blake: An Illustrated Quarterly, vol. 14, no. 2 (Fall 1980): 66-84.

Rosenfeld, Alvin H., ed. William Blake: Essays for S. Foster Damon. Providence: Brown University Press, 1969.

Skinner, John. A Critical and Exegentical Commentary on Genesis. (The International Commentary of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments). New York: Charles Scribners and Sons, 1940.

Todd, Ruthven. "The Techniques of William Blake's Illuminated Printings," The Print Collector's Quarterly 29 (November 1948): 25-37. [Reprinted in The Visionary Hand: Essays for the Study of William Blake's Art and Aesthetics, ed. by Robert Essick (Los Angeles: Hennessey and Ingals, 1973), pp. 22-29.]

. William Blake the Artist. London: Studio Vista, 1971.

Tomory, Peter. The Life and Art of Henry Fuseli. New York: Praeger 1972.

Wilson, Mona. The Life of William Blake. London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1971.