William Blake, Painter and Poet

William Blake, born in 1757 took part in the Romanticism movement. Blake’s beginning exposure to the idea of art began in engraving Greek drawings of antiquities this practice was preferred to actual drawing. Through this practice Blake was unknowingly practicing the classical form of drawing. By the age of 21, Blake was considered a professional engraver. 7 years later Blake found himself enrolled into the Royal academy. During this time Blake rebelled against the accepted views of painting at the time that being the Rubens style. This style was derived from Peter Paul Rubens who was a Baroque painter, this focused primarily on emphasized movement, color, and sensuality. The focused subject matter was predominately portraits, landscapes and history paintings of allegorical and mythological subjects. Blake preferred the classical style specifically from early influencers such as Michelangelo and Raphael.

William Blake’s works were influenced from the Bible, as stated before he shared many radical views and ideas about the bible through his paintings. From a young age, it is said that William Blake has witnessed visions of times were he “saw God” when God “put his head to the window”. Blake from these visions made what viewers depict as visionary paintings. Blake’s painting, “The Ghost of a Flea” depicts a monstrous head un-top of a human like body. The head can be described as being demonic. The body of the flea is lying between the stride of the demonic figure. This exaggerated subject matter is painted on a mahogany panel and painted with tempera heightened with god leaf. The painting was produced in 1820 and was a commissioned painting by watercolorist John Varley. Spiritual art had become popular in Britainfrom 1770-1830.

Another one of William Blake’s painting that I found intriguing that consisted of a religious subject matter was, “Satan calling up his Legions”. This painting is based upon the Book of Revelations in this the subject matter is seen uprising his “minions” to what one may assume Earth. This being one of the thought's of final judgment from the Book of Revelation. Thispainting has a lot of motion as well as feeling. It can be said that based upon the reading in the bible, this uprising is what Blake may have found most compelling to translate the overall feel and tone of the particular reading. You can take away from the painting that this is unearthly but it is quite romantic. The colors and tone of the painting one may not be able to depict what is being portrayed without the title. Another painting that was based upon the Book of Revelations that one might find compelling is, “The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun”. In this painting the Dragon is depicted as being ready to devour the child of the pregnant woman. The dragon’s back is facing the viewer and the lady underneath the dragon in horror. The dynamic wing spread of the dragon demands the viewer’s attention. This particular scene was depicted from Revelations 12 verse 4 it is said, “And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to earth; and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. This painting was produced between 1805 and 1810 and was a part of a watercolor series.