GOTHIC

Yale Center for British Art

Jerusalem

Plate 84

Blake uses the word Gothic to refer to more than a period of time or a particular style, just as he uses Art to refer to more than a particular type of expression. By associating Gothic with 'Living Form', 'eternal Esistence', 'true Art' and with 'Any Age' he expand the meaning of Gothic beyond the traditional meaning. He relates Gothic to Urthona and to Imagination.  

Blake had intense exposure to Gothic architecture in Westminster Abbey when he was apprenticed to James Basire who specialized in engravings for the Society of Antiquaries. Blake was assigned the task of making drawings of Gothic monuments. As noted in Prophet against Empire "Tapestries were removed in Westminster Abbey so that Blake could copy the hidden Gothic portraits of King Sebert and Henry III." Blake was present to make sketches when the tomb of Edward I was opened to examine the body. Blake's drawings were used by his master in making engravings for publication. 

But to Blake Gothic became a symbol for what he aimed for in communicating his philosophy of Art. Gothic was was to him not only living but life-giving. Through Gothic he was able to:

"To see a World in a Grain of Sand 

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower 

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour" (Auguries of Innocence, E 490)

On Virgil, (E 270)

 "Mathematic Form is Eternal in the Reasoning Memory.  Living
Form is Eternal Existence.

 Grecian is Mathematic Form
  Gothic is Living Form"

Descriptive Catalogue, (E 544)

"Poetry as it exists
now on earth, in the various remains of ancient authors, Music as
it exists in old tunes or melodies, Painting and Sculpture as it
exists in the remains of Antiquity and in the works of more
modern genius, is Inspiration, and cannot be surpassed; it is
perfect and eternal.  Milton, Shakspeare, Michael Angelo, Rafael,
the finest specimens of Ancient Sculpture and Painting, and
Architecture, Gothic, Grecian, Hindoo and Egyptian, are the
extent of the human mind.  The human mind cannot go beyond the
gift of God, the Holy Ghost.  To suppose that Art can go beyond
the finest specimens of Art that are now in the world, is not
knowing what Art is; it is being blind to the gifts of the
spirit."

Vision of the Last Judgment, (E 559)

"Multitudes are seen ascending from the Green
fields of the blessed in which a Gothic Church is representative
of true Art Calld Gothic in All Ages"

Annotations to Reynolds,(E 649)

 "What does this mean "Would have been" one of the first
Painters of his Age" Albert Durer Is! Not would
have been! Besides. let them look at Gothic Figures & Gothic
Buildings, & not talk of Dark Ages or of Any Age! Ages are All
Equal.  But Genius is Always Above The Age" 

Inscriptions and Notes, (E 671)

William Blake: engraving (revised and inscribed ca 1809-10)

"JOSEPH of Arimathea among The Rocks of Albion Engraved by W Blake 1773 from an old Italian Drawing This is One of the Gothic Artists who Built the Cathedrals in what we call the Dark Ages Wandering about in sheep skins & goat skins of whom the World was not worthy such were the Christians in all Ages Michael Angelo Pinxit" William Blake: [on a proof of the early state of the plate] "Engraved when I was a beginner at Basires from a drawing by
Salviati after Michael Angelo"

---

Jerusalem, Plate 37

Blake's Pieta

Christ and Albion

Michelangelo's Pieta

JUDGMENT

Michelangelo

Sistine Chapel

The Last Judgment

William Blake

Petworth House

A Vision of the Last Judgment

Kathleen Raine in her book, Golgonooza: City of Imagination, focuses on differences in the way that the two artists, Michelangelo and Blake, conceived of the same subject matter. Beginning on Page 144, she describes their perspectives in creating the images of the Last Judgment. She sees them presenting opposing views of  the meaning and purpose of the apocalypse or final resolution of creation. Blake's Christ is a benevolent figure around whom there is a "great circulation of human figures ascending and descending in unbroken flow from the heavens down to the hells, and again rising up to the heavens." Michelangelo's figure of Christ focuses instead on fallen humanity without compassion.

Raine points out that Blake's figures are not historical figures even though we find their stories in the Bible: they are symbolic of the states through which mortal man passes in his journey through life.

Descriptions of the Last Judgment, (E 556)

"on the left 
beneath the falling figure of Cain is Moses casting his tables of
stone into the Deeps. it ought to be understood that the Persons
Moses & Abraham are not here meant but the States Signified by
those Names  the Individuals being representatives or Visions of
those States as they were reveald to Mortal Man in the Series of
Divine Revelations. as they are written in the Bible these
various States I have seen in my Imagination when distant they
appear as One Man but as you approach they appear
Multitudes of Nations.  Abraham hovers above his posterity which
appear as Multitudes of Children ascending from the Earth
surrounded by Stars as it was said As the Stars of Heaven for
Multitude Jacob & his Twelve Sons"

Represented by Blake are archetypes not individuals. In his life's journey a man is passing through archetypal states from which he is released by Jesus the Imagination in order to proceed to the next state. 

Milton Plate 32 [35], (E 132)

"Distinguish therefore States from Individuals in those States.
States Change: but Individual Identities never change nor cease:
You cannot go to Eternal Death in that which can never Die.
Satan & Adam are States" 

Jerusalem, Plate 33 [37],(E 180)

"We live as One Man; for contracting our infinite senses
We behold multitude; or expanding: we behold as one,
As One Man all the Universal Family; and that One Man
We call Jesus the Christ: and he in us, and we in him,        
Live in perfect harmony in Eden the land of life,
Giving, recieving, and forgiving each others trespasses."

Raine observes that in contrast to Blake's Christ who is the "heart of divine radiance" Michelangelo's Christ is "stern and majestic" and "comes to judge the world in terms of its own attainable perfection."

Jerusalem, Plate 49,(E 199)

"Yet they are blameless & Iniquity must be imputed only           
To the State they are enterd into that they may be deliverd:
Satan is the State of Death, & not a Human existence:
But Luvah is named Satan, because he has enterd that State.
A World where Man is by Nature the enemy of Man
Because the Evil is Created into a State. that Men               
May be deliverd time after time evermore. Amen.
Learn therefore O Sisters to distinguish the Eternal Human
That walks about among the stones of fire in bliss & woe
Alternate! from those States or Worlds in which the Spirit travels:
This is the only means to Forgiveness of Enemies"  

Page 159 Raine sums up her impressions of the works of two artists: "Thus  for Michelangelo the Last Judgment represents the end and downfall of the world, for Blake it represents rather an opening of the eyes of the spirit, an end only of illusion to make way for a vision of eternal reality."

LAST JUDGMENT 4

(For detail of image, right click on picture, select open in a new window, click on image, close window to return)  

National Gallery of Art
The Last Judgment
Pen & Ink drawing
1809

In Blake's images of the Last Judgment he was portraying the passage of man through states. The individuals in the images are not distinct humans but mental conditions through which a person may pass along his journey. We each have an image of oneself. When we reflect on our lives we may recognize that we are not the same person we were previously. For instance when I was a student in college I was focused on my own intellectual development. As young mother of three little boys I turned toward nurturing the growth of the children who were in my care. I have passed through various states without relinquishing my identity as a Soul created in the image of God.

Along our journeys we may fall into states of selfishness, greed, prejudice, guilt, hostility, self-righteousness or other errors which cause a falling away from the Truth which is Eternal. Blake's image of the Last Judgment shows that falling away when an individual has entered a state of error. But the individual is not consigned to remain in hell; he may be released to continue in the upward phase of the cycle. States are a mercy which are created that man may become aware of his error and may be delivered to his Eternal Humanity.

On page 153 of Golgonnoza, Kathleen Raine states:

"The heavens, the hells, all the possible states of the soul, are ever present possibilities through which men pass. Blake did not believe that either the heavens or hells are once-for-all assigned to human souls, but rather that man is a 'mental traveller' who explores all the possible states...But lost though he be in the hells, the Traveller is not is not bound to remain in these dark states.

"...it will be seen that I do not consider either the Just or the Wicked to be in a Supreme State but to be every one of them States of the Sleep which the Soul may fall into in its Deadly Dreams of Good & Evil when it leaves Paradise following the Serpent" (E 641)

... The 'State called Satan' cannot be redeemed, but individuals can be redeemed from that state. There is, besides, a 'supreme state,' and this is the Divine Humanity, who is, for Blake, the God within."

Jerusalem, Plate 49, (E 199)
"Yet they are blameless & Iniquity must be imputed only           
To the State they are enterd into that they may be deliverd:
Satan is the State of Death, & not a Human existence:
But Luvah is named Satan, because he has enterd that State.
A World where Man is by Nature the enemy of Man
Because the Evil is Created into a State. that Men               
May be deliverd time after time evermore. Amen.
Learn therefore O Sisters to distinguish the Eternal Human
That walks about among the stones of fire in bliss & woe
Alternate! from those States or Worlds in which the Spirit travels:
This is the only means to Forgiveness of Enemies" 

Milton, Plate 23 [25], (E 119)
"We were plac'd here by the Universal Brotherhood & Mercy
With powers fitted to circumscribe this dark Satanic death
And that the Seven Eyes of God may have space for Redemption.
But how this is as yet we know not, and we cannot know;
Till Albion is arisen; then patient wait a little while,"

Jerusalem, Plate 13, (E 157)
(But whatever is visible to the Generated Man,
Is a Creation of mercy & love, from the Satanic Void.)"  

Jerusalem, Page 20, (E 165)
"Jerusalem answer'd with soft tears over the valleys.

O Vala what is Sin? that thou shudderest and weepest
At sight of thy once lov'd Jerusalem! What is Sin but a little
Error & fault that is soon forgiven; but mercy is not a Sin
Nor pity nor love nor kind forgiveness! O! if I have Sinned      
Forgive & pity me! O! unfold thy Veil in mercy & love!

Jerusalem, Plate 42, (E 198)
"O! I have utterly been wasted! I have given my daughters to devils

So spoke Albion in gloomy majesty, and deepest night
Of Ulro rolld round his skirts from Dover to Cornwall.

Los answerd. Righteousness & justice I give thee in return
For thy righteousness! but I add mercy also, and bind            
Thee from destroying these little ones: am I to be only
Merciful to thee and cruel to all that thou hatest?
Thou wast the Image of God surrounded by the Four Zoa's
Three thou hast slain! I am the Fourth: thou canst not destroy me.
Thou art in Error; trouble me not with thy righteousness.      
I have innocence to defend and ignorance to instruct:
I have no time for seeming; and little arts of compliment,
In morality and virtue: in self-glorying and pride."

Jerusalem, Plate 76, (E 231)
"But Jesus breaking thro' the Central Zones of Death & Hell
Opens Eternity in Time & Space; triumphant in Mercy

Thus are the Heavens formd by Los within the Mundane Shell
And where Luther ends Adam begins again in Eternal Circle
To awake the Prisoners of Death; to bring Albion again           
With Luvah into light eternal, in his eternal day.

But now the Starry Heavens are fled from the mighty limbs of Albion"

---

Michelangelo and states.

 

 

LAST JUDGMENT 3

Last Judgment

William Blake

Enhanced Detail

In his images of the Last Judgment Blake was using symbolic language through the medium of graphic figures. He was not commenting on specific individuals but on people who have passed through various stages of development along the journey through life. Blake read the Bible not to learn what events had taken place in the past. He wanted to know what was going on in his own mental development by knowing how biblical characters were transformed. He wanted his readers to think about what they could learn by considering what Abraham had done or what Moses had done, not to imitate their behavior but to discern their motivation. Consciously thinking in symbols is an introspective process.

In Golgonooza by Kathleen Raine we are shown the contrast between writing history and presenting vision.

"This difference Between Michelangelo's Judgment, conceived as history and taking place in this world, and Blake's conception of the Apocalypse as a vision of the inner worlds accounts for many differences in composition and conception." (Page 146)

"[Blake's] purpose is not to represent nature but invisible inner worlds." (Page 147)

Jerusalem, Plate 73, (E 228)
"but around
These, to preserve them from Eternal Death Los Creates           
Adam Noah Abraham Moses Samuel David Ezekiel
[Pythagoras Socrates Euripedes Virgil Dante Milton]  
Dissipating the rocky forms of Death, by his thunderous Hammer
As the Pilgrim passes while the Country permanent remains
So Men pass on: but States remain permanent for ever"       

Kathleen Raine in Golgonooza states:

"Blake's symbolic figures are with very few exceptions Biblical, and in the infernal caverns reign not the Classical Hades but the seven-headed Satan of ST. John's Apocalypse. Nor did Blake attempt, as did both Dante and Michelangelo, to make his painting a political commentary on his own time by introducing living or recent historical figures...Adam and Eve, Cain and Able, Abraham and Noah are not for Blake historical figures but rather symbolical." (Page 150) 

Vision of Last Judgment, (E 556)
"it ought to be understood that the Persons
Moses & Abraham are not here meant but the States Signified by
those Names the Individuals being representatives or Visions of
those States as they were reveald to Mortal Man in the Series of
Divine Revelations. as they are written in the Bible these
various States I have seen in my Imagination when distant they
appear as One Man but as you approach they appear
Multitudes of Nations." 

---

Although Michelangelo painted to represent the condition of man and the outcome of failing to conform to the expectations of religious beliefs, he was more inclined to focus on his contemporaries. The consequences of offending or sinning led to agony.

This information is from Secrets of Michelangelo's Last Judgment:

"When Michelangelo began work on The Last Judgment mural, Pope Paul III instructed his Master of Ceremonies, Biagio da Cesena, to keep an eye on its progress. Biagio was a conservative man and, upon discovering the wall covered in nude figures, he attempted to persuade the Pope to have the figures covered.

Unfortunately for him, Michelangelo convinced the Pope to let him carry out his vision and, as an added touch, Biagio was later added as a portrayal of Minos, the judge of the underworld, with donkey ears and a snake wrapped around his groin. When Biagio returned to the Pontiff to ask for his face to be removed, Paul III jokingly explained that his jurisdiction did not extend to hell!"

Last Judgment 

Michelangelo

Group of the damned 

with Biagio da Cesena as Minos at right

.

LAST JUDGMENT 2

Wikipedia Commons
Michelangelo's Last Judgment
Detail of Jesus

On Page 148 of Golgoonoza Kathleen Raine explains the background of the culture in which Michelangelo worked on his image of the Last Judgment. His Jesus was the product of the religious mindset of Renaissance Italy in which he lived. The Reformation was underway but Jesus was still perceived a figure of wrath not mercy.

"The vision of the Apocalypse was for Michelangelo and for his time rather one of terror and of this world's ruin rather than of spiritual resurrection. So it has remained in the imagination of Christendom as a whole, and so it must be always for this secular world, whose foundations are to be shaken and overthrown. That Michelangelo's figure of Jesus comes rather as a figure of wrath than of serenity clearly reflects Michelangelo's own political bitterness at the Roman See.

...Michelangelo's vision considers the great event from the standpoint of this world."

National Gallery of Art Washington DC
Last Judgment

c 1809
Pen and Ink

Reine tells us on Page 149 of Golgonooza of the contrary perspective of Blake in presenting the Son of God. "Jesus is less a supreme ruler than a permeating presence, the heart of the great circulation of human figures ascending and descending in unbroken flow from the heavens down to the hells, and again rising upwards into the heavens.

...Blake's Jesus is not so much an individual as the heart of the light which emanates from a divine center."

---

There are several images of the Last Judgment by Blake which still exist including a drawing and watercolor images . He worked on a large image said to include "upwards of one thousand figures" in "exquisite finishing" until the end of his life but it is untraced since 1848. (Stranger from Paradise, G. E. Bentley, Jr, Page 355)

The pen and ink drawing in the National Gallery of Art can be viewed in detail by opening in a new window. -
Rt click on image, select open in a new window, left click on image for enlargement. Use directional arrows to view specific areas of the picture. Close window to return.

The image in the National Gallery is closest to the description which Blake wrote in a letter to his friend Ozias Humphry.

---

The Design of The Last Judgment, (E 552)

          "To Ozias Humphry Esqre

     The Design of The Last Judgment which I have completed by
your recommendation [under a fortunate star] for The
Countess of Egremont [by a happy accident] it is
necessary to give some account of & its various parts ought to be
described for the accomodation of those who give it the honor of
attention
     Christ seated on the Throne of judgment [The Heavens in
Clouds rolling before him & around him] before his feet &
around him the heavens in clouds are rolling like a scroll ready
to be consumed in the fires of the Angels who descend  
with the Four Trumpets sounding to
the Four Winds
     Beneath  Earth is convulsed with the labours
of the Resurrection--in the Caverns of the Earth is the Dragon
with Seven heads & ten Horns chained by two Angels & above his
Cavern on the Earths Surface is the Harlot siezed & bound by
two Angels with chains while her Palaces are falling
into ruins & her councellors & warriors are
descending into the Abyss in wailing & despair
     Hell opens beneath the Harlots seat on the left hand into
which the Wicked are descending [while others rise from their
Craves on the brink of the Pit]
     The right hand of the Design is appropriated to the
Resurrection of the Just the left hand of the Design is
appropriated to the Resurrection & Fall of the Wicked

     Immediately before the Throne of Christ is Adam & Eve
kneeling in humiliation as representatives of the whole Human
Race   Abraham & Moses kneel on each side beneath them from the
cloud on which Eve kneels [ & beneath Moses & from the Tables
of Stone which utter lightnings] is seen Satan wound round
by the Serpent & falling headlong the Pharisees appear on the
left hand pleading their own righteousness before the Throne of
Christ & before the Book of Death which is opend on clouds by two
Angels & many groupes of Figures are falling from before the
Throne & from before the Sea of Fire which flows before the steps
of the Throne on which is seen the seven Lamps of
the Almighty burning before the Throne many Figures chained &
bound together & in various attitudes of Despair & Horror fall
thro the air & some are scourged by Spirits with flames of fire
into the Abyss of Hell which opens [to recieve them]
beneath on the left hand of the Harlots Seat where others are
howling & [descending into the flames & in the act of]
dragging each other into Hell & in contending in
fighting with each other on the brink of
Perdition
     Before the Throne of Christ on the Right hand the Just in
humiliation & in exultation rise thro the Air with their Children
& Families some of whom are bowing before the Book of Life which
is opend on clouds by two
Angels many groupes arise in 
exultation among them is a Figure crownd with Stars & the Moon
beneath her feet with six infants around her She represents the
Christian Church   Green hills appear beneath with
the Graves of the Blessed which are seen bursting with their
births of immortality Parents & Children Wives & Husbands embrace
& arise together & in exulting attitudes of great joy tell each
other that the New Jerusalem is ready to descend upon Earth they
arise upon the Air rejoicing others newly awakend from the Grave
stand upon the Earth embracing. & shouting to the Lamb who cometh
in the Clouds in Power & great Glory
     The Whole upper part of the Design is a View of Heaven
opened around the Throne of Christ in the Cloud which rolls away
are the Four Living Creatures filled with Eyes attended by the
Seven Angels with the Seven Vials of the Wrath of God & above
these  Seven Angels with the Seven Trumpets
these compose the Cloud which by its rolling
away displays the opening seats of the Blessed on the right &
left of which are seen the Four & Twenty Elders seated on Thrones
to Judge the Dead
     Behind the Seat & Throne of Christ appears
the Tabernacle with its Veil opened & the Candlestick
on the right the Table with the Shew bread on the left & in
[the] midst is the Cross in place of the Ark [with
the two] Cherubim bowing over it
     On the Right hand of the Throne of Christ is Baptism On
the left is the Lords Supper the two introducers
into Eternal Life    Women with Infants approach the Figure of an
aged Apostle which represents

Baptism & on the left hand the Lords Supper is administerd by
Angels from the hands of another  Apostle these
kneel on each side of the Throne which is surrounded by a Glory
many Infants appear in the Glory
representing the Eternal Creation flowing from the Divine
Humanity in Jesus who opens the Scroll of Judgment upon his knees
before the Living & the Dead
     Such is the Design which you my Dear Sir have been the cause
of my producing & which but for you might have slept till the
Last Judgment

                                                 WILLIAM BLAKE
[18 January 1808] Feby 1808"

 

LAST JUDGMENT

Wikipedia Commons

Michelangelo

Last Judgment

Sistine Chapel

Wikimedia Commons 
The Vision of the Last Judgment
Petworth House, The National Trust

William Blake and Michelangelo each created images of the Last Judgment. Despite Blake's admiration for Michelangelo, he interpreted the scene in a different style to portray different content. Michelangelo's primary art was his sculpting which influenced his painting. Blake was trained as an engraver which determined the way that he painted.

Michelangelo's figures have bulk and weight while Blake's are light and flowing. The physical body is displayed by Michelangelo, the ethereal body by Blake. The image of Jesus shown by Michelangelo is that of a human man in the center of the drama. Blake's Jesus is clothed in light and reigns in heaven removed from the earthly activity. 

Kathleen Raine in Golgonooza: City of Imagination states that "in comparing Blake's Vision of the Last Judgment with that of Michelangelo - to whom Blake was so obviously and so deeply indebted - we are comparing a historical and ecclesiastical with a mystical understanding of the Apocalypse. As we compare the works of these two great Christian artists, each totally dedicated to the religion they professed, we discover that the many differences of overall conception and of detail do correspond to differences in each 'according to the situation he holds.'"(Page 145)

Vision of the Last Judgment, (E 554)
"The Last Judgment when all those are Cast away who trouble
Religion with Questions concerning Good & Evil or Eating of the
Tree of those Knowledges or Reasonings which hinder the Vision of
God turning all into a Consuming fire    Imaginative Art &
Science & all Intellectual Gifts all the Gifts of the Holy Ghost
are lookd upon as of no use & only Contention
remains to Man   then the Last Judgment begins & its Vision is seen
by the Imaginative Eye of Every one according to the
situation he holds
    The Last Judgment is not Fable or Allegory
but Vision"

Descriptive Catalogue, (E 544)
 "Poetry as it exists
now on earth, in the various remains of ancient authors, Music as
it exists in old tunes or melodies, Painting and Sculpture as it
exists in the remains of Antiquity and in the works of more
modern genius, is Inspiration, and cannot be surpassed; it is
perfect and eternal.  Milton, Shakspeare, Michael Angelo, Rafael,
the finest specimens of Ancient Sculpture and Painting, and
Architecture, Gothic, Grecian, Hindoo and Egyptian, are the
extent of the human mind.  The human mind cannot go beyond the
gift of God, the Holy Ghost.  To suppose that Art can go beyond
the finest specimens of Art that are now in the world, is not
knowing what Art is; it is being blind to the gifts of the
spirit."

HOLY WEEK 7

First posted May 2017 as JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA.

Detail of the Crucifixion of St. Peter 

by Michelangelo in the Cappella Paolina. 

When Blake was a young apprentice just learning his trade of engraving he choose as his subject an image from a figure by Michelangelo. Blake was familiar with the work of Michelangelo through prints which he studied to become familiar with the great art of the past. A small portion of a fresco in the Pauline Chapel of the Vatican presented an image of a powerful but pensive man caught in the crowd gathered around the crucifixion of Peter. The craft of engraving requires the artist to intensely concentrate his focus on the image he is engraving . Michelangelo's figure became to Blake more than just a picture. It became Joseph of Arimathea, if became William Blake, it became everyman, it became Albion.

British Museum
Nicolas Beatrizet
(after Michelangelo) Figure of a Man

British Museum
Student Engraving
1773

British Museum

Joseph of Arimathea Among the Rocks of Albion 

c. 1810

According to the Gospel of John it was Joseph of Arimathea who requested that Roman governor Pilate release the body of Jesus for burial. Legends grew up around Joseph including that he was Jesus' uncle, a tin merchant who had taken Jesus on a trip to England with him when Jesus was an adolescent. The legend included the idea that Joseph stood by helplessly when Jesus was crucified, perhaps standing at a distance to avoid arousing the attention of the Roman Soldiers or the Jewish authorities. The legend continued with Joseph using a Chalice to catch the blood of the Lord as it flowed from the wound in his side. The Chalice became identified as the Holy Grail and as the story goes, traveled to England with Joseph.
The legend tells of Joseph founding Christianity in England at Glastonbury in Cornwall. It is events in this tale which led to Blake's writing the lines:
"And did those feet in ancient time,
Walk upon Englands mountains green:
And was the holy Lamb of God,
On Englands pleasant pastures seen!"

 

Blake did not forget the image which he had made when an apprentice to Basire. He returned to it years later reengraved it with additional detail and words to explain what it meant to him. The image tied him to Joseph of Arimathea, to Jesus, to Michelangelo and to the restored Albion which incorporated the idea of Jerusalem being built in England's green and pleasant land.

Harold Bloom commenting on The Everlasting Gospel, (E 876):

"But in the 1818 fragment the drama remains the static threefold scene: Christ and Lucifer arguing their opposite views before "Me" (Every man, or Joseph of Arimathea, or Blake)."

 Inscriptions, (E 671)

     "JOSEPH of Arimathea among The Rocks of Albion
     
Engraved by W Blake 1773 from an old Italian Drawing 
     This is One of the Gothic Artists who Built the Cathedrals
in what we call the Dark Ages    Wandering about in sheep skins &
goat skins of  whom  the World was not worthy   such were the
Christians in all Ages
     Michael Angelo Pinxit" 

Inscriptions, (E 671)
[on a proof of the early state of the plate]
     "Engraved when I was a beginner at Basires from a drawing by
Salviati after Michael Angelo"  

Four Zoas, Night VIII, Page 110 [106], (E 379)
"Thus was the Lamb of God condemnd to Death            
They naild him upon the tree of Mystery weeping over him
And then mocking & then worshipping calling him Lord & King
Sometimes as twelve daughters lovely & sometimes as five
They stood in beaming beauty & sometimes as one even Rahab
Who is Mystery Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots    

Jerusalem saw the Body dead upon the Cross She fled away 
Saying Is this Eternal Death   Where shall I hide from Death
Pity me Los pity me Urizen & let us build    
A Sepulcher & worship Death in fear while yet we live 
Death! God of All from whom we rise to whom we all return
And Let all Nations of the Earth worship at the Sepulcher      
With Gifts & Spices with lamps rich embossd jewels & gold

Los took the Body from the Cross Jerusalem weeping over
They bore it to the Sepulcher which Los had hewn in the rock 
Of Eternity for himself he hewd it despairing of Life Eternal" 
Four Zoas, Night VIII, PAGE 103, (E 375) 
"The sorrower of Eternity in love with tears submiss I rear
My Eyes to thy Pavilions hear my prayer for Luvahs sake
I see the murderer of my Luvah clothd in robes of blood
He who assured my Luvahs throne in times of Everlasting
Where hast thou hid him whom I love in what remote Abyss 
Resides that God of my delight O might my eyes behold
My Luvah then could I deliver all the sons of God
From Bondage of these terrors & with influences sweet   
As once in those eternal fields in brotherhood & Love
United we should live in bliss as those who sinned not 
The Eternal Man is seald by thee never to be deliverd
We are all servants to thy will O King of Light relent
Thy furious power be our father & our loved King
But if my Luvah is no more If thou hast smitten him
And laid him in the Sepulcher Or if thou wilt revenge     
His murder on another Silent I bow with dread
But happiness can never [come] to thee O King nor me
For he was source of every joy that this mysterious tree
Unfolds in Allegoric fruit. When shall the dead revive
Can that which has existed cease or can love & life Expire"

---

John 19
[33] But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs:
[34] But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.
[35] And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.
[36] For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.
[37] And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.
[38] And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.
[39] And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
[40] Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.
[41] Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.
[42] There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.

Matthew 27
[57] When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple:
[58] He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.
[59] And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,
[60] And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.

.

PIT OF DESPAIR

Wikipedia Commons
Sistine Chapel Ceiling 
Michelangelo
Roboam Abias

Matthew 1
[6] And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias;
[7] And Solomon begat Roboam; and Roboam begat Abia; and Abia begat Asa;
[8] And Asa begat Josaphat; and Josaphat begat Joram; and Joram begat Ozias

British Museum
Copy after Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling
Abias

When problems are overwhelming and the answers that occur to the conscious mind are unacceptable, the reaction is despair. But despair need not be an end; it can be a beginning. The problems can be redefined; new answers from other sources can be considered. Carl Jung searched for answers to some fundamental issues which led men to despair. His answers included looking within one's own psyche for solutions and connecting to archetypal realities through dreams, myths, and symbolic occurrences.

Here is a C.G. Jung quotation available on Wikipedia. It is from Jung's Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle:

"This grasping of the whole is obviously the aim of science as well, but it is a goal that necessarily lies very far off because science, whenever possible, proceeds experimentally and in all cases statistically. Experiment, however, consists in asking a definite question which excludes as far as possible anything disturbing and irrelevant. *It makes conditions, imposes them on Nature, and in this way forces her to give an answer to a question devised by man. She is prevented from answering out of the fullness of her possibilities since these possibilities are restricted as far as practible.* For this purpose there is created in the laboratory a situation which is artificially restricted to the question which compels Nature to give an unequivocal answer. The workings of Nature in her unrestricted wholeness are completely excluded. If we want to know what these workings are, we need a method of inquiry which imposes the fewest possible conditions, or if possible no conditions at all, and then leave Nature to answer out of her fullness. (Page 35) 

Visions of Daughters of Albion, Plate 2, (E 47)

"Why does my Theotormon sit weeping upon the threshold;
And Oothoon hovers by his side, perswading him in vain:
I cry arise O Theotormon for the village dog
Barks at the breaking day. the nightingale has done lamenting.
The lark does rustle in the ripe corn, and the Eagle returns     
From nightly prey, and lifts his golden beak to the pure east;
Shaking the dust from his immortal pinions to awake
The sun that sleeps too long. Arise my Theotormon I am pure.
Because the night is gone that clos'd me in its deadly black.
They told me that the night & day were all that I could see;     
They told me that I had five senses to inclose me up.
And they inclos'd my infinite brain into a narrow circle,
And sunk my heart into the Abyss, a red round globe hot burning
Till all from life I was obliterated and erased.
Instead of morn arises a bright shadow, like an eye              
In the eastern cloud: instead of night a sickly charnel house;
That Theotormon hears me not! to him the night and morn
Are both alike: a night of sighs, a morning of fresh tears;" 

Songs of Experience, SONGS 31, (E 18) 

"EARTH'S Answer.

Earth rais'd up her head,From the darkness dread & drear.
Her light fled:   
Stony dread!
And her locks cover'd with grey despair.

Prison'd on watry shore
Starry jealousy does keep my tent
Cold and hoar
Weeping o'er
I hear the Father of the ancient men

Selfish father of men
Cruel jealous selfish fear
Can delight
Chain'd in night      
The virgins of youth and morning bear.

Does spring hide its joy   
When buds and blossoms grow?
Does the sower?
Sow by night?
Or the plowman in darkness plow?

Break this heavy chain,
That does freeze my bones around
Selfish! vain!
Eternal bane!                                 
That free Love with bondage bound."

Milton, Plate 41 [48], (E 142)
"To cast off the idiot Questioner who is always questioning,
But never capable of answering; who sits with a sly grin
Silent plotting when to question, like a thief in a cave;
Who publishes doubt & calls it knowledge; whose Science is Despair
Whose pretence to knowledge is Envy, whose whole Science is
To destroy the wisdom of ages to gratify ravenous Envy;"

Jerusalem, Plate 12, (E 155)
"What shall I do! or how exist, divided from Enitharmon?
Yet why despair! I saw the finger of God go forth                
Upon my Furnaces, from within the Wheels of Albions Sons:
Fixing their Systems, permanent: by mathematic power
Giving a body to Falshood that it may be cast off for ever.
With Demonstrative Science piercing Apollyon with his own bow!
God is within, & without! he is even in the depths of Hell!

 Such were the lamentations of the Labourers in the Furnaces!"

Poetical Sketches, (E 415)
          SONG.

"Memory, hither come,
  And tune your merry notes;
And, while upon the wind,
  Your music floats,
I'll pore upon the stream,
Where sighing lovers dream,    
And fish for fancies as they pass
Within the watery glass.

I'll drink of the clear stream,
  And hear the linnet's song;    
And there I'll lie and dream
  The day along:
And, when night comes, I'll go
  To places fit for woe;
Walking along the darken'd valley,   
  With silent Melancholy."

Letters, To Cumberland, (E 706)
"I begin to
Emerge from a Deep pit of Melancholy, Melancholy without any real
reason for it, a Disease which God keep you from & all good men."

CHAIN OF JEALOUSY

Wikipedia Commons   Sistine Chapel Ceiling      Michelangelo      Abiud

Matthew 1
[12] And after they were brought to Babylon, Jechonias begat Salathiel; and Salathiel begat Zorobabel;
[13] And Zorobabel begat Abiud; and Abiud begat Eliakim; and Eliakim begat Azor;
[14] And Azor begat Sadoc; and Sadoc begat Achim; and Achim begat Eliud; 

 

British Museum
Copy after Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling
Abiud

Another of the drawings which Blake made from copies of individuals from the Michelangelo frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel is an ancestor of Jesus named Abiud. We see pictured in this the bond between a mother and her infant. It was an innocent scene but Blake may have related it to the tensions which grow in a family if the parents are possessive of each other, or if the love of a mate is withdrawn and transferred to the child they produced.
 

Fathers and sons do not always get along with one another. A mother who becomes over-attached to a son may force the child's father to become resentful and jealous. Blake describes this situation in conjunction with Los, Enitharmon and their first-born Orc. Blake's Chain of Jealousy, which developed out of Los' fears, contained many links including hostility, depression, withdrawal, secrecy and plotting revenge. Blake subtitled the Four Zoas:  "The torments of Love & Jealousy in The Death and Judgement of Albion the Ancient Man."

Four Zoas, Night V, Page 59, (E 340)
"Enitharmon nursd her fiery child in the dark deeps              
Sitting in darkness. over her Los mournd in anguish fierce
Coverd with gloom. the fiery boy grew fed by the milk
Of Enitharmon. Los around her builded pillars of iron
Page 60 
And brass & silver & gold fourfold in dark prophetic fear
For now he feard Eternal Death & uttermost Extinction       
He builded Golgonooza on the Lake of Udan Adan
Upon the Limit of Translucence then he builded Luban
Tharmas laid the Foundations & Los finishd it in howling woe     

But when fourteen summers & winters had revolved over
Their solemn habitation Los beheld the ruddy boy
Embracing his bright mother & beheld malignant fires
In his young eyes discerning plain that Orc plotted his death
Grief rose upon his ruddy brows. a tightening girdle grew        
Around his bosom like a bloody cord. in secret sobs
He burst it, but next morn another girdle succeeds
Around his bosom. Every day he viewd the fiery youth
With silent fear & his immortal cheeks grew deadly pale
Till many a morn & many a night passd over in dire woe          
Forming a girdle in the day & bursting it at night
The girdle was formd by day by night was burst in twain
Falling down on the rock an iron chain link by link lockd

Enitharmon beheld the bloody chain of nights & days
Depending from the bosom of Los & how with griding pain  
He went each morning to his labours. with the spectre dark
Calld it the chain of jealousy. Now Los began to speak   
His woes aloud to Enitharmon. since he could not hide
His uncouth plague. He siezd the boy in his immortal hands
While Enitharmon followd him weeping in dismal woe              
Up to the iron mountains top & there the Jealous chain
Fell from his bosom on the mountain. The Spectre dark
Held the fierce boy Los naild him down binding around his limbs
The accursed chain O how bright Enitharmon howld & cried 
Over her son. Obdurate Los bound down her loved joy"            

Book of Ahania, Plate 5, (E 90)
"14: But now alone over rocks, mountains
Cast out from thy lovely bosom:                          
Cruel jealousy! selfish fear!
Self-destroying: how can delight,
Renew in these chains of darkness
Where bones of beasts are strown
On the bleak and snowy mountains
Where bones from the birth are buried
Before they see the light."

Milton, Plate 20 [22], (E 115)
"He recollected an old Prophecy in Eden recorded,
And often sung to the loud harp at the immortal feasts
That Milton of the Land of Albion should up ascend
Forwards from Ulro from the Vale of Felpham; and set free        
Orc from his Chain of Jealousy, he started at the thought"

RECOGNIZE ERROR

Wiki Art
Michelangelo
Sistine Chapel - Ezekias, Manasses, Amon

Three generations in the line of Jesus' ancestors are represented in a single tempera of Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling: Hezekiah, Manasseh and Amon.

Two men who bore the name Manasseh figured prominently in Old Testament history. The first was one of the two sons of Joseph born before the Israelites were delivered from Egypt. He and his brother Ephraim were said to be children of an Egyptian woman, and were given half-shares when the land was distributed among the tribes in the land on Canaan.

British Museum
Manasseh
Copy after Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling

Later a boy only twelve years old, became king of Israel. His reign was long, corrupt and bloody. He departed from the religion of the Israelites and worshiped the gods of the enemies of Israel. This Manasseh was the son of Hezekiah and the father of Amon.  

Athough Hezekiah had followed Yahweh's command to destroy the altars to Baal, his son and grandson rebuilt them and worshiped and served Baal instead the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

This is the irony of the ancestry of Jesus: it includes both the most admirable and the most despicable characters. We cannot eradicate individuals from the genetic material we receive from our ancestors. Nor can we eliminate the mistakes we make as we travel our journeys through life. But we can learn to recognize error when we see it distorting our ability to engage in creative relationships and activities. It is the repetition of the same errors which stymies development .

In Milton, Blake had his hero recognize his error and set about rebuilding his psyche in accordance with the vision which was given to him.

Kay Parkhurst Easson and Roger Easson, in their book Milton, describe the dramatic reconstruction of the personality required to get past the erroneous thinking which inhibits growth:

"Like Milton in Blake's poem, the loving reader of Blake journeys into recognition of his selfhood, that error of perception which limits imagination and spiritual growth. Reading Milton is like a journey of unlearning. Blake describes his task in Milton as displaying 'Nature's cruel holiness, the deceits of Natural Religion.' In other words, one of the basic tasks of Blake's poem is to expose the false reality of the so called 'natural world' and its assertion that it is the only reality. This 'false reality' is the result of the selfhood of each reader; it is the world we naturally perceive as 'without,' the world we externalize and desire to control and which in turn controls us. Consequently, Blake's vision of the world is so dissonant with our usual understanding that we must 'unlearn'; we must give up our preconceptions about the world and about ourselves with that world." (Page 138)    

Milton, Plate 14 [15], (E 108)
"Then Milton rose up from the heavens of Albion ardorous!         
The whole Assembly wept prophetic, seeing in Miltons face
And in his lineaments divine the shades of Death & Ulro
He took off the robe of the promise, & ungirded himself from the oath of God

And Milton said, I go to Eternal Death! The Nations still
Follow after the detestable Gods of Priam; in pomp               
Of warlike selfhood, contradicting and blaspheming.
When will the Resurrection come; to deliver the sleeping body
From corruptibility: O when Lord Jesus wilt thou come?
Tarry no longer; for my soul lies at the gates of death.
I will arise and look forth for the morning of the grave.       
I will go down to the sepulcher to see if morning breaks!
I will go down to self annihilation and eternal death,
Lest the Last Judgment come & find me unannihilate
And I be siez'd & giv'n into the hands of my own Selfhood
The Lamb of God is seen thro' mists & shadows, hov'ring          
Over the sepulchers in clouds of Jehovah & winds of Elohim
A disk of blood, distant; & heav'ns & earth's roll dark between
What do I here before the Judgment? without my Emanation?
With the daughters of memory, & not with the daughters of inspiration[?]
I in my Selfhood am that Satan: I am that Evil One!              
He is my Spectre! in my obedience to loose him from my Hells
To claim the Hells, my Furnaces, I go to Eternal Death.

And Milton said. I go to Eternal Death! Eternity shudder'd
For he took the outside course, among the graves of the dead
A mournful shade. Eternity shudderd at the image of eternal death

Then on the verge of Beulah he beheld his own Shadow;
A mournful form double; hermaphroditic: male & female
In one wonderful body. and he enterd into it
In direful pain for the dread shadow, twenty-seven-fold 

Reachd to the depths of direst Hell, & thence to Albions land:  
Which is this earth of vegetation on which now I write,"

Matthew 1
[9] And Ozias begat Joatham; and Joatham begat Achaz; and Achaz begat Ezekias;
[10] And Ezekias begat Manasses; and Manasses begat Amon; and Amon begat Josias;
[11] And Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to Babylon

Genesis 48
[1] And it came to pass after these things, that one told Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick: and he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.
[5] And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine.
[13] And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near unto him.
[14] And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn.
[17] And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head.
[20] And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before Manasseh.

Second Kings 21
[1] Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hephzi-bah.
[2] And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.
[3] For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.
[4] And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD said, In Jerusalem will I put my name.
[5] And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.
[6] And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
[7] And he set a graven image of the grove that he had made in the house, of which the LORD said to David, and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever:
[8] Neither will I make the feet of Israel move any more out of the land which I gave their fathers; only if they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them.
[9] But they hearkened not: and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel.
[10] And the LORD spake by his servants the prophets, saying,
[11] Because Manasseh king of Judah hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols:
[12] Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle.
[13] And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down.
[14] And I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies;
[15] Because they have done that which was evil in my sight,and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even unto this day.
[16] Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; beside his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the LORD.
[17] Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all that he did, and his sin that he sinned, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
[18] And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza: and Amon his son reigned in his stead.
[19] Amon was twenty and two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.
[20] And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh did.
[21] And he walked in all the way that his father walked in, and served the idols that his father served, and worshipped them:
[22] And he forsook the LORD God of his fathers, and walked not in the way of the LORD.
[23] And the servants of Amon conspired against him, and slew the king in his own house.
[24] And the people of the land slew all them that had conspired against king Amon; and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead.
[25] Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
[26] And he was buried in his sepulchre in the garden of Uzza: and Josiah his son reigned in his stead.