William Blake, Satan in his Original Glory: 'Thou wast Perfect till Iniquity was Found in Thee', c. 1805
copyright Tate: Presented by the executors of W. Graham Roberston through the Art Fund 1949
William Blake
Angels and Imagination
This exhibition takes the figure of the angel as a starting point for an exploration of Blake’s ideas about the body and spirit. Famously, Blake often had visions of angels and even claimed to converse with them, he felt imagination was the uniting principle and men and angels were intimately linked.
Blake experienced visions throughout his life; they were often spiritual and religious in their content, and inspired by his artistic explorations of theology and philosophy.
Drawing on works from three of Blake’s great series of illustrations for private patrons; Dante’s Divine Comedy, Edward Young’s Night Thoughts, and the series of bible illustrations for Thomas Butts, this exhibition shows how Blake reinterpreted these texts in the light of his own beliefs.
Image:
William Blake,
Satan in his Original Glory: 'Thou wast Perfect till Iniquity was Found in Thee', c. 1805
© Tate: Presented by the executors of W. Graham Robertson through the Art Fund 1949