Good morning and have a marvelous Friday! ☀ Born on this day - William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) “If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro narrow chinks of his cavern.” ― William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell William Blake was an English painter, poet and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His prophetic poetry has been said to form what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language. His visual artistry led one contemporary art critic to proclaim him far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced. In 2002, Blake was placed at number 38 in the BBCs poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. Although he lived in London his entire life (except for three years spent in Felpham), he produced a diverse and symbolically rich oeuvre, which embraced the imagination as the body of God or human existence itself. Although Blake was considered mad by contemporaries for his idiosyncratic views, he is held in high regard by later critics for his expressiveness and creativity, and for the philosophical and mystical undercurrents within his work. His paintings and poetry have been characterised as part of the Romantic movement and Pre-Romantic, for its large appearance in the 18th century. Reverent of the Bible but hostile to the Church of England (indeed, to all forms of organised religion), Blake was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French and American Revolutions. Though later he rejected many of these political beliefs, he maintained an amiable relationship with the political activist Thomas Paine; he was also influenced by thinkers such as Emanuel Swedenborg. Despite these known influences, the singularity of Blakes work makes him difficult to classify. The 19th-century scholar William Rossetti characterised him as a glorious luminary, and a man not forestalled by predecessors, nor to be classed with contemporaries, nor to be replaced by known or readily surmisable successors The Ancient of Days is the title of a design by William Blake, originally published as the frontispiece to a 1794 work, Europe a Prophecy. It shows Urizen crouching in a circular design with a cloud-like background. His outstretched hand holds a compass over the darker void below. As noted in Gilchrists Life of William Blake, the design was a singular favourite with Blake and as one it was always a happiness to him to copy. As such there are many versions of the work extant, including one completed for Frederick Tatham only weeks before Blakes death. The British Museum notes that one copy, accessioned in 1885, was excluded from Martin Butlins 1982 catalogue raisonné of Blakes paintings and drawings, suggesting the author doubted that attribution. Early critics of Blake noted the work as amongst his best, and a favourite of the artist himself. A description by Richard Thompson in John Thomas Smiths Nollekens and His Times, was of ... an uncommonly fine specimen of art, and approaches almost to the sublimity of Raffaelle or Michel Angelo. and as representing the event given in the Book of Proverbs viii. 27 (KJV), when he set a compass upon the face of the earth. The subject is said to have been one of the visions experienced by Blake and that he took an especial pleasure in producing the prints. The copy commissioned by Tatham in the last days of Blakes life, for a sum of money exceeding any previous payment for his work, was tinted by the artist while propped up in his bed. After his revisions, Blake is said to have, ‘threw it from him, and with an air of exulting triumph exclaimed, There, that will do! I cannot mend it.’ The image was used as the cover for Stephen Hawkings book God Created the Integers. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 08:57:05 +0000