DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31843#0137
CATALOGUE OF BLAKE'S ENGRAVED DESIGNS
338. LOS AND HIS FIERY ORB.
No text. Nude and youthful, Los grasps his hammer, and sitting
astride a glowing cloud lets fall the crimson Sun he has created.
This design would more appropriately have closed The Book of
Los (see Nos. 342-345), which ends with an elaborate description of
the forging of the Orb, and the final launching of it:
“ Los heated the glowing mass, casting
It down into the Deeps.”
There is nothing about this in the present poem.
9! X 7 in.
[339-341]. Designs for Ahania.
Whether dissatisfied for the moment with the method of relief-
etching hitherto used for his books, or more probably moved by a
desire for experiment, Blake in 1795 produced two small books from
copper-plates etched in the ordinary way. These are Ahania and The
Book of Los, and each is known by a single copy only; the latter is
in the Dept. of Printed Books, British Museum, the former is in the
great collection of Mr. W. A. White, at Brooklyn (but the frontispiece
belongs to Dr. Keynes). Though the text is etched in intaglio, the
colour-designs are not printed in this way, but appear to have been
separately painted on the plate (see p. 17), and to be monotypes.
Ahania is sometimes thought to be the Second Book of Urizen.
339. Frontispiece : Urizen and Ahania.
Urizen, snowy-haired, sits with head bowed and hidden, his hands
laid on the head of Ahania, who crouches between his knees with an
agonised expression on her face. Behind the group is icy rock,
beneath a dark blue sky with crimson streaks. The design illustrates
the lines of the poem :
Deep groaned Urizen ; stretching his awful hand
Ahania (so named his parted Soul)
He seized on his mountains of Jealousy.
He groaned, anguished, and called her Sin,
Kissing her and weeping over her ;
Then hid her in darkness, in silence,
Jealous, tho' she was invisible.
5§X4 in.
This unique colour-print is in the collection of Dr. Geoffrey
Keynes. A study for the design is in the Print Room.
Ahania, the Emanation of Urizen, is the “ soul of sweet delight ”
117
338. LOS AND HIS FIERY ORB.
No text. Nude and youthful, Los grasps his hammer, and sitting
astride a glowing cloud lets fall the crimson Sun he has created.
This design would more appropriately have closed The Book of
Los (see Nos. 342-345), which ends with an elaborate description of
the forging of the Orb, and the final launching of it:
“ Los heated the glowing mass, casting
It down into the Deeps.”
There is nothing about this in the present poem.
9! X 7 in.
[339-341]. Designs for Ahania.
Whether dissatisfied for the moment with the method of relief-
etching hitherto used for his books, or more probably moved by a
desire for experiment, Blake in 1795 produced two small books from
copper-plates etched in the ordinary way. These are Ahania and The
Book of Los, and each is known by a single copy only; the latter is
in the Dept. of Printed Books, British Museum, the former is in the
great collection of Mr. W. A. White, at Brooklyn (but the frontispiece
belongs to Dr. Keynes). Though the text is etched in intaglio, the
colour-designs are not printed in this way, but appear to have been
separately painted on the plate (see p. 17), and to be monotypes.
Ahania is sometimes thought to be the Second Book of Urizen.
339. Frontispiece : Urizen and Ahania.
Urizen, snowy-haired, sits with head bowed and hidden, his hands
laid on the head of Ahania, who crouches between his knees with an
agonised expression on her face. Behind the group is icy rock,
beneath a dark blue sky with crimson streaks. The design illustrates
the lines of the poem :
Deep groaned Urizen ; stretching his awful hand
Ahania (so named his parted Soul)
He seized on his mountains of Jealousy.
He groaned, anguished, and called her Sin,
Kissing her and weeping over her ;
Then hid her in darkness, in silence,
Jealous, tho' she was invisible.
5§X4 in.
This unique colour-print is in the collection of Dr. Geoffrey
Keynes. A study for the design is in the Print Room.
Ahania, the Emanation of Urizen, is the “ soul of sweet delight ”
117