William Blake: A Study of His Life and Art WorkLangridge, Irene
General
William Blake: A Study of His Life and Art Work
Langridge, Irene
Blake, William, 1757-1827
And now we come to Plate 14, than which nothing can be imagined more
beautiful. "When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God
shouted for joy," are the words beneath and around the border; the six
days of creation are indicated in six delicate medallions, which _may_ in
their turn have suggested the noble series of paintings, of ample scope
and poetic imagining, which Sir Edward Burne-Jones executed.
[Illustration: PLATE XIV FROM "THE BOOK OF JOB," 1825
Engraving]
But the main design--God, the centre of the universe, from whom issues Day
and Night, the listening rapt group of Job, his wife, and the
comforters, and, above all, the glorious rejoicing ranks of angels--is
beautiful almost beyond expression. It is noticeable that on either side
appears the arm alone of an angel outside the picture, thus cleverly
suggesting the idea of an infinity of this heavenly host. Mrs. Jamieson,
in her "Christian Art," says, "The most original and, in truth, the only
new and original version of the scripture idea of angels which I have met
with is that of William Blake, a poet-painter, somewhat mad as we are
told, if indeed his madness were not rather 'the telescope of truth,' a
sort of poetical clairvoyance, bringing the unearthly nearer to him than
others.
"His adoring angels float rather than fly, and with their half-liquid
draperies seem about to dissolve into light and love; and his rejoicing
angels--behold them!--sending up their voices with the morning stars, that
'singing in their glory move!'"
The picture has the thrill, the immensity of music in it, and I never look
at it without recalling the motive of the last movement of the Choral
Symphony.
[Music]
It resolves all the human suffering, all the incoherent and striving
emotions, all the diverse and multiform forces of the Book of Job, into a
final harmony and triumph of beauty.
In much the same way the last motive of Beethoven's "Ninth Symphony" rings
forth after the tentative, subtle and passionate music of the preceding
movements like a shout of joy, the cry of a faith which says--not, "I
have heard, I have learnt, I believe," but, "I _know_! absolutely and for
ever!"
Plate 15 shows God pointing out the works that His hand has fashioned.
"Behemoth" and Leviathan, in a circular design very Gothic in character,
appear below. And to this succeeds Plate 16, "Satan Falling."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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