Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Paintings Of William Blake

By Darren Hartley


William Blake paintings rank among the most original visual arts of the Romantic era. William first studied art as boy, at the drawing academy of Henry Pars. He served a five year apprenticeship with the commercial engraver James Basire before entering the Royal Academy School as an engraver at the age of twenty-two.

Nature Revolves, but Man Advances was one of the earliest William Blake paintings. It was a resultant from his private studying of medieval and Renaissance art. Raphael, Michaelangelo and Durer were among his idols. He was on the trail of producing timeless, Gothic art, representative of Christian spirituality, done with poetic ingenuity.

By the 1790s, William Blake paintings consisted of a series of large color prints notable for their massive size and iconic designs. They were his most ambitious work as a visual artist. Of the 12 known designs, many of the subjects function as pairs. These subjects were drawn from the Bible, Shakespeare, Milton and Newton.

The technique used in William Blake paintings was described as fresco. It is form of monotype, using oil and tempera paints mixed with chalks. The designs are painted on a flat surface, that is, a copperplate or millboard and finished in ink and watercolour. This made each impression, rare and unique.

From 1799 to 1809, William Blake paintings consisted of a series of Bible illustrations that included about 50 tempera paintings and more than 80 watercolors. The focus of these illustrations was Old Testament prefigurations of Christ, the life of Christ and apocalyptic subjects from the Book of Revelation.

William Blake paintings develop art on an inward-looking, imaginative trajectory. William sought his subjects in journeys of the mind. Other than the Bible, he drew on other texts, most notably Dante, in his painting of Beatrice addressing Dante from the Car, and his own fertile mind, as evidenced by his The Ghost of a Flea.




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