Blake, william, featured paintings in detail (2)

BLAKE, William

Featured Paintings in Detail

(2)

(The Great Red Dragon Paintings)

BLAKE, WilliamThe Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun c. 1805 Pen and gray ink with watercolor over graphite, 40.8 x 33.7 cmNational Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

BLAKE, WilliamThe Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun (detail)c. 1805 Pen and gray ink with watercolor over graphite, 40.8 x 33.7 cmNational Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

Three other watercolors of the Great Dragon passages appear in a series of works made by Blake between 1805 and 1809 that is based on the book of Revelation. They are part of a larger group of tempera and watercolor paintings executed for Blake’s most important patron,

Thomas Butts.

BLAKE, WilliamThe Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun 1803 Black ink and watercolor over traces of graphite and incised lines, 43.7 × 34.8 cm Brooklyn Museum, New York City

BLAKE, WilliamThe Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun (detail)1803 Black ink and watercolor over traces of graphite and incised lines, 43.7 × 34.8 cm Brooklyn Museum, New York City

BLAKE, WilliamThe Great Red Dragon and the Beast from the Sea c. 1805 Pen and ink with watercolor over graphite, 54.8 x 44 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

BLAKE, WilliamThe Great Red Dragon and the Beast from the Sea (detail)c. 1805 Pen and ink with watercolor over graphite, 54.8 x 44 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C

BLAKE, WilliamThe Number of the Beast is 666 1805 pen and ink and water color , 41.2 x 33.5 cm Rosenbach Museum and Library, Philadelphia

BLAKE, WilliamThe Number of the Beast is 666 (detail)1805 pen and ink and water color , 41.2 x 33.5 cm Rosenbach Museum and Library, Philadelphia

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BLAKE, WilliamThe Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun

A cosmic battle between good and evil unfolds in this dramatic watercolor by romantic poet and visionary artist William Blake. Sweeping lines cross the drawing and evoke the zigzag flash of lightning, whoosh of a gale, and flap of wings, imbuing the scene with tension. The stakes are no less than the fate of humankind.

The book of Revelation, the final book of the New Testament, contains a series of warnings to Christians to maintain and guard their faith, then relates a series of allegorical episodes that demonstrate the consequences of spiritual defection. Blake’s The Great Red Dragon and Woman Clothed in the Sun illustrates passages that describe “an enormous

red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads” who descends upon “a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.” The dragon embodies Satan. His mission is to exact revenge on the woman who has given birth to a follower of God who will spread the Christian faith.

Sun bathes the woman’s figure and catches in the crescent sliver of moon on which she rests. Darkness and shadow fill the sky above like a storm cloud as the dragon’s wings stir a great wind and sweep her hair upward, flamelike. Below, a rising deluge invoked by the dragon–intended to engulf the woman—overwhelms the figures of hapless souls. As the devil hovers to witness her demise, God grants her wings that carry her to safety. Yet the powerful image of the dragon’s outstretched arms and hers arcing toward each other in

mirror image suggest that good and evil are a duality, like the dark and light sides of the moon, rather than completely independent forces.

The earth will open up to swallow the water, and the thwarted dragon will fly away to wage war against the woman’s progeny, the followers of God. For Blake, it is spiritual power—the purity and goodness represented by the woman—that always prevails, however horrific the circumstances.

BLAKE, WilliamThe Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun

In this narrative the Dragon, identified with Satan, schemes to seize the soon-to-be born Redeemer from his mother. Derived from the Virgin Mary of the Gospels, the figure known as the Woman Clothed with the Sun also stands for Israel and for the Church.

Blake's threatening Dragon displays powerful musculature as well as its monstrous tail, wings, and horned heads. Subsequent scenes reveal the failure of the Dragon's plan but the emergence of new threats to mankind.

BLAKE, WilliamThe Great Red Dragon and the Beast from the Sea

This painting depicts the passage literally, taken from Revelations. "And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and

upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave

him his power, and his seat, and great authority. “The seven-headed, ten-horned dragon stands above a beast emerging from the sea, also with seven heads and ten horns, wielding a sword in one hand

and a torch in the other. Interestingly, Blake’s beasts do not take a particularly animalistic form but are rather based on the human figure.

BLAKE, WilliamThe Number of the Beast is 666

The design is based on Revelation 13:11-13, 18. The top half of the design is dominated by a dragon-like beast with the body of a man, a looping tail with two loops, outstretched bat-like wings, and seven heads. He is nude and his muscular body faces forward and right. The figure sits on or perhaps is climbing a

large rock or mountain. Seventeen stars appear on the wings of the creature in the top half of the design, eight on the left and nine on the right.

At the base of the boulder or mountain is a sheep with human forearms and hands. It has short, curly fur covering its body with the exception of its face and human hands. Its arms are raised horizontally, palms held vertically. The scene takes place against the background of a dark night sky.

At the bottom center of the design sits another hybrid man/beast figure, facing away. It appears to have the body of a nude, muscular man. In its right hand it holds a scepter with a top that resembles a fleur-de-lis. This figure appears to have five bald heads, four facing away. The central figure at the bottom of the

design sits on a rock that may have moss or lichen at its base; the rock itself is colored to suggest flames. At the bottom right corner of the design, a mass of at least eleven figures kneels, facing left and down; the figure in the front left has curly hair, a beard, and

holds his arms horizontally, bent upward, with hands together in supplication or prayer. In the bottom left corner of the design kneels a group of at least fourteen people. At least two figures have their arms bent upward with their hands together in a gesture of prayer or supplication.

BLAKE, William

was an English poet, painter, 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 works have 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 BBC's 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 œuvre, 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 as "Pre-Romantic". Reverent of the Bible but hostile to the Church of

England (indeed, to almost all forms of organised religion), Blake was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French and American Revolutions.

Despite these known influences, the singularity of Blake's work makes him difficult to classify.

Blake, william, featured paintings in detail (2)

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