William Blake was ahead of his time– from his indignation at the treatment of poor children and black slaves to his unconventional views on religion and politics. Yet the innovation of Blake’s artistic works is generally overlooked in comparison to that of his literary works. Perhaps it is because Blake’s engaging style of writing so deeply engrosses readers that they often forget the significance of Blake’s visual elements. Even in the study of art history, students who examine the Romantic Age are so preoccupied with Blake’s mainstream contemporaries that they rarely analyze his works at the same level of detail. With the exception of a few enthusiasts, the general public is much more familiar with Blake the poet than Blake the artist. Whatever the reason, the result is a lopsided view of a multitalented individual whose visual creations are just as original as his poems. Therefore, by analyzing one of Blake’ more obscure works, The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun, one can gain a fresh insight on Blake’s artistic ingenuity. Whether a piece of art is contemporary or as old as Blake’s, it shares many common features to consider when studying it. In the introduction to her art history textbook, Marilyn Stockstad writes “The work of art historians can be divided into four types of investigation: 1. assessment of physical properties, 2. analysis of visual or formal structure, 3. identification of subject matter or conventional symbolism, 4. integration within cultural context,” (Stockstad, xxvii). The physical properties and formal structure of The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun show Blake’s ability to envision a fantastical scene with astounding detail. This watercolor painting shows th... ... middle of paper ... ... Works Cited Blake, William. The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun. Ca. 1803-1805. Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway Brooklyn, New York 11238-6052. Www.brooklynmuseum.org. Brooklyn Museum. Web. 19 Oct. 2010. . Hilton, Adrian, Thomas Gentils, and Daniel Beresford. Virtual People: Capturing 3D Articulated Models of Individual People. Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing. IEE. Web. 19 Oct. 2010. . Revelation (also Apocalypse). Www.biblos.com. Web. 19 Oct. 2010. . Stokstad, Marilyn. "Introduction." Introduction. Art History. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2008. Xxvii. Print.
Getlein, Mark. "Chapter 17-The 17th and 18th Centuries." Living with Art. 9th ed. Boston, MA: McGraw Hill, 2008. 384-406. Print.
Many of these artists' works contain subtle hints to the author's opinion on the subject. By analyzing their central compositional effects, the viewer can obtain a greater appreciation and understanding for the art.
DeWitte, Debra J. et al. Gateways To Art. New York City, NY: Thames & Hudson, 2012. Print.
Cothren, M. & Marilyn Stokstad. (2011). Art History, Volume 2, 4th Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Learning Solutions.
The Art Bulletin, Vol. 57, No. 2 (Jun., 1975), pp. 176-185. (College Art Association), accessed November 17, 2010. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3049368.
Nash, Susan. Oxford History of Art: Norther Renaissance Art. 2nd. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. 30-65. eBook.
Goldwater, Robert and Marco Treves (eds.). Artists on Art: from the XIV to the XX Century. New York: Pantheon Books, 1945.
Read, Hebert Edward, Sir. Discovering Art: The Illustrating Story of Art Through the Ages. Vol.
Gardner, Helen, and Fred S. Kleiner. Gardner's Art Through the Ages: The Western Perspective. N.p., 2014. Print.
The theme of authority is possibly the most important theme and the most popular theme concerning William Blake’s poetry. Blake explores authority in a variety of different ways particularly through religion, education and God. Blake was profoundly concerned with the concept of social justice. He was also profoundly a religious man. His dissenting background led him to view the power structures and legalism that surrounded religious establishments with distrust. He saw these as unwarranted controls over the freedom of the individual and contrary to the nature of a God of liberty. Figures such as the school master in the ‘schoolboy’, the parents in the ‘chimney sweeper’ poems, the guardians of the poor in the ‘Holy Thursday’, Ona’s father in ‘A Little girl lost’ and the priestly representatives of organised religion in many of the poems, are for Blake the embodiment of evil restriction.
William Blake was a modern thinker with a recalcitrant political spirit. He used poetry and art as sociopolitical weapons, which were raised boldly against the establishment. These sociopolitical weapons, which began with him, are still used today in all types of artistic and political activities. Although known as a madman and a mystic, (Elliott) his art and his poetry were guided by the visions of radical change. Even today, his work is both relevant and profound. The brilliant approach he took with difficult political and moral topics created unique artistic representations that are very much as relevant today as they were when Blake first adopted their use.
In one of the illustrations, the Little Black Boy is still black when he meets God even though in the poem he claims that color will no longer matter. The way that they are standing is very interesting too because the poem suggests that they will be equal, but the Little Black Boy is described as standing behind the child and in the picture, he is standing behind the white boy. This could be another example of Blake showing how innocent people and naïve people are close to the same thing. The boy thinks one way, but Blake is showing the reader the way things really are through his
Kleiner, Fred S. Gardner’s Art through the Ages: The Western Perspective. Vol 2.13th ed. Boston: Wadsworth/ Cengage Learning, 2010.
Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. New York: Prentice Hall Inc. and Harry N. Abrams Inc. 1995.
Kleiner, Fred S. Gardner's Art Through the Ages. Boston: Clark Baxter, 2009. Print. The.