Saturday, October 05, 2013

Europe: Frontspiece


Commons wikipedia.org
Ancient of Days
Blake found the Ancient of Days as a name for God. 
God was referred to as the Ancient of Days three times in the 9th Chapter of the  Book of Daniel. Here is one of them:
"[9] I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.
[10] A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.


From Wikipedia
"When Europe was printed, it was in the same format as Blake's America and sold for the same price. It was printed between 1794 and 1821 with only 9 copies of the work surviving.."
and seven in the Blake Archive.

It was said to be used as "a portrait of Urizen in his finest hour" (Erdman Illuminated p.155).
This reminds us that Blake thought of the Old Testmant (non-forgiving) God as noted for 'the
thump on the head':
" Thinking as I do that the Creator of this World is a veryCruel Being & being a Worshipper of Christ I cannot help sayingthe Son O how unlike the Father".
from 'Vision of the Last Judgment' (Erdman 565)

1 comment:

Susan J. said...

what a beautiful... painting? or is an engraving? are the two diagonals near the bottom light-rays, or a pyramid, or something else? any idea? it still takes me a long time to decipher Blake's images... I finally sorted out the beard and the orientation of the AoD face...