DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31843#0055
CATALOGUE OF BLAKE'S
ENGRAVED DESIGNS
LINE-ENGRAVINGS
Joseph of Arimathea among the Rocks of Albion.
The title given above is engraved on the rock. Below the subject
ls the inscription: This is one of the Gothic Artists who huilt the
Cathedrals in what we call the Dark Ages, Wandering about in sheep
skins and goat skins, of whom the World was not worthy. Such were
the Christians in all ages. Michael Angelo Pinxit; Engraved hy
W". Blake, 1773, from an old Italian Drawing.
9x4! in.
See reproduction, Plate 1.
The “ old Italian drawing " was doubtless a copy, probably bought
at °ne of Langford's auctions by Blake, 44 the little connoisseur," as
Langford called him, after a figure by Michelangelo which occurs at
the extreme right of the fresco of the Grucifixion of St. Peter in the
Gappella Paolina. But Blake has made the figure his own by setting
it m a background of rock and sea ; just the same landscape elements,
with the sun glittering on dark water beside the steep rock, which we
find in the drawings to Dante's Purgatorio made at the very end of
his life. Blake was only sixteen when he engraved this print.
It is possible that the explanatory text was added later, but I see
no reason for presuming this, Blake was a mystic from the first.
This type of old man's figure, taken from Michelangelo, with the
head growing from the shoulders almost without a neck, and massive
limbs, haunted Blake's art, together with the longer lines of Gothic
types taken from the recumbent effigies which he drew as a boy in
Westminster Abbey. And the early history of Britain was deeply
lrnplanted in his mind from boyhood. He would have read the history
m his favourite Milton. According to the legend, Joseph of Arimathea
brought the Gospel of Ghrist to England and preached it at Glaston-
bury. Because he treasured the Light in darkness, Joseph was after-
wards identified in Blake's mythology with Los, the spirit of Poetry
(The Four Zoas). To Blake no one but an artist, or one imbued
with the spirit of art, could be a Christian.
Blake kept the plate of this engraving all his life, and it was printed
from after his death. Dr. Keynes tells me that an impression which
35
ENGRAVED DESIGNS
LINE-ENGRAVINGS
Joseph of Arimathea among the Rocks of Albion.
The title given above is engraved on the rock. Below the subject
ls the inscription: This is one of the Gothic Artists who huilt the
Cathedrals in what we call the Dark Ages, Wandering about in sheep
skins and goat skins, of whom the World was not worthy. Such were
the Christians in all ages. Michael Angelo Pinxit; Engraved hy
W". Blake, 1773, from an old Italian Drawing.
9x4! in.
See reproduction, Plate 1.
The “ old Italian drawing " was doubtless a copy, probably bought
at °ne of Langford's auctions by Blake, 44 the little connoisseur," as
Langford called him, after a figure by Michelangelo which occurs at
the extreme right of the fresco of the Grucifixion of St. Peter in the
Gappella Paolina. But Blake has made the figure his own by setting
it m a background of rock and sea ; just the same landscape elements,
with the sun glittering on dark water beside the steep rock, which we
find in the drawings to Dante's Purgatorio made at the very end of
his life. Blake was only sixteen when he engraved this print.
It is possible that the explanatory text was added later, but I see
no reason for presuming this, Blake was a mystic from the first.
This type of old man's figure, taken from Michelangelo, with the
head growing from the shoulders almost without a neck, and massive
limbs, haunted Blake's art, together with the longer lines of Gothic
types taken from the recumbent effigies which he drew as a boy in
Westminster Abbey. And the early history of Britain was deeply
lrnplanted in his mind from boyhood. He would have read the history
m his favourite Milton. According to the legend, Joseph of Arimathea
brought the Gospel of Ghrist to England and preached it at Glaston-
bury. Because he treasured the Light in darkness, Joseph was after-
wards identified in Blake's mythology with Los, the spirit of Poetry
(The Four Zoas). To Blake no one but an artist, or one imbued
with the spirit of art, could be a Christian.
Blake kept the plate of this engraving all his life, and it was printed
from after his death. Dr. Keynes tells me that an impression which
35