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William Blake#Dante's InfernoThe commission for Dante's Inferno came to Blake in 1826 through Linnell, with the ultimate aim of producing a series of engravings. Blake's death in 1827 would cut short the enterprise, and only a handful of the watercolours were completed, with only seven of the engravings arriving at proof form. Even so, they have evoked praise: "The mastery of watercolor has reached an even higher level than before, and is used to extraordinary effect in differentiating the atmosphere of the three states of being in the poem." Blake's illustrations of the poem are not merely accompanying works, but rather seem to critically revise, or furnish commentary on, certain spiritual or moral aspects of the text. In illustrating Paradise Lost, for instance, Blake seemed intent on revising Milton's focus on Satan as the central figure of the epic; for example, in Satan Watching the Endearments of Adam and Eve (1808), Satan occupies an isolated position at the picture's top, with Adam and Eve centered below. As if to emphasise the effects of the juxtaposition, Blake has shown Adam and Eve caught in an embrace, whereas Satan may only onanistically caress the serpent, whose identity he is close to assuming. In this instance, because the project was never completed, Blake's intent may itself be obscured. Some indicators, however, bolster the impression that Blake's illustrations in their totality would themselves take issue with the text they accompany: In the margin of Homer Bearing the Sword and His Companions, Blake notes, "Every thing in Dantes Comedia shews That for Tyrannical Purposes he has made This World the Foundation of All & the Goddess Nature & not the Holy Ghost." Blake seems to dissent from Dante's admiration of the poetic works of the ancient Greeks, and from the apparent glee with which Dante allots punishments in Hell (as evidenced by the grim humour of the cantos). At the same time, Blake shared Dante's distrust of materialism and the corruptive nature of power, and clearly relished the opportunity to represent the atmosphere and imagery of Dante's work pictorially. Even as he seemed to near death, Blake's central preoccupation was his feverish work on the illustrations to Dante's Inferno; he is said to have spent one of the very last shillings he possessed on a pencil to continue sketching. |
The Cambridge Companion to William Blake, pages 106-108Once Blake had finished work on the Job engravings Linnell gave him the ambitious task of making 100 watercolors for Dante's Divine Comedy (Butlin 812), with the aim of producing also a series of engravings. The work was not completed before his death in 1827. Only a small number of the Dante watercolors are finished; some are barely sketched in, and only seven engravings reached proof form. Even so the Dante watercolors are among Blake's richest achievements, engaging fully with the problem of illustrating a poem of such complexity. The mastery of watercolor has reached an even higher level than before, and is used to extraordinary effect in differentiating the atmosphere of the three states of being in the poem. ... Such an inconclusive ending, as well as the remark penciled on Homer Bearing the Sword, and His Companions (7) (Butlin 812 7): "Every thing in Dante's Commedia shews That for Tyrannical Purposes he has made This World the Foundation of All the Goddess Nature & not the Holy Ghost" (E 689), mark Blake's dissent from Dante's admiration for the poets of pagan Greece, and from the vengefulness of Dante's Hell...Yet there are also abundant signs of Blake's relish for Dante's imagery and creation of atmosphere, and also sympathy for Dante's hatred of the corruption of power and of materialism. |
Blake stood opposed to the predominant Enlightenment views of his day because what he saw as Newton's dead atomic machine of a universe was opposed to his visionary religious and artistic views. Blake believed that paintings which naturalistically depict the fall of light upon objects were products entirely of the "vegetative eye" and not the imagination. He railed against it in his marginalia to Joshua Reynolds he Blake saw Locke and Newton as "the true progenitors of Sir Joshua Reynolds' aesthetic"(285). The popular taste in the England of that time for such paintings was satisfied with mezzotints, prints produced by a process that created an image from thousands of tiny dots upon the page. Blake saw an analogy between this and Newton's particle theory of light, and significantly never used the technique.
Blake's marginalia on The Complete Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, P 204. My notion of nature comprehends . . . also the . . .
human mind and imagination.
<Here is a Plain Confession that he Thinks Mind &
Imagination not to be above the Mortal & Perishing Nature. Such
is the End of Epicurean or Newtonian Philosophy it is Atheism>
I turn my eyes to the Schools & Universities of Europe
And there behold the Loom of Locke whose Woof rages dire
Washd by the Water-wheels of Newton. black the cloth
In heavy wreathes folds over every Nation; cruel Works
Of many Wheels I view, wheel without wheel, with cogs tyrannic
Moving by compulsion each other: not as those in Eden: which
Wheel within Wheel in freedom revolve in harmony & peace.
That God is Colouring Newton does shew
And the devil is a Black outline all of us know
Perhaps this little Fable may make us merry
A dog went over the water without a wherry
A bone which he had stolen he had in his mouth
He cared not whether the wind was north or south
As he swam he saw the reflection of the bone
This is quite Perfection, one Generalizing Tone 8
Outline Theres no outline Theres no such thing
All is Chiaro Scuro Poco Piu its all Colouring
Snap. Snap! he has lost shadow & substance too
He had them both before now how do ye do
A great deal better than I was before
Those who taste colouring love it more & more 11
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