William Blake's Divine Comedy Illustrations- 102 Full Color Plates Dover

William Blake's Divine Comedy Illustrations- 102 Full Color Plates Dover

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NVilliam Blake’s final artistic project is a s tunning collection
o f illustrations for Dante Alighieri’s masterpiece, the epic
poem Divinia commedia. Born nearly 500 years after Dante,
the English poet and artist nevertheless succeeds in bridging
the centuries to provide a unique perspective on the
medieval classic. İt is a fascinating marriage, as Dante,
although harshly cıitical o f the Church and its adherents,
was nevertheless a believer, vvhereas Blake was renowned
for his iconoclastic stance against organized religion.
Willianı Blake, born in London in 1757, was encouraged
by his pa rents to study art, and he became an apprentice to
James Basire, an engraver, in his early teens. After doing
magazine illustrations, he opeııed a print shop in London
with his wife, Catlıerine Boucher (whom he had wed in
1782) and brother; that business failed. In addition to his
artwork, Blake vvıote many poems, combining engravings
with verse in The Marriage o f lleavetı and ile li (1790), The
Book o f Urizen (1794), and Jerusa/em ( 1804 1818), as well
as o ther works displaying his bold and unconventional literary
and artistic sensibility. Although he rcceived critical
attention during his lifctimc, Blake was often regarded as an
ecccntric, and he became detached İroni his supporte rs in
his later years. He died on August 12, 1827.
İn 1824, tlıe paintcr and pr intmake r John Linnell olTered
Blake a commission to engrave illustrations for the Book o f
Job (c. 1825). Linnell then proposed that Blake iliustrate the
Divitıe Coıııedy, and Blake accepted, eveıı learning enough
Italian to grasp the gist o f tlıe origiııal verse. Blake was in
contact witlı the Reverend Henry Caıy, wlıose 1814 translation
o f Dante was lıeld in great esteeııı, an d it is possible
that the two discussed tlıe poem at some poiııt. Thus,
Linnell provided the watercolor paper, an d Blake proceeded
with his illustrations. Blake was plagued by gallbladder
attacks tovvard the end o f his life, but he persevered with the
project. By the time o f his death, in 1827, Blake had created
102 drawings for the Divine Comedy—some were sketches;
others were fully realized watercolors. (He also made
seven copperplate engravings, falling far short o f his goal to
engrave the entire work.) The final count included seventytwo
illustrations for Inferno, tvventy for Purgatorio, an d only
ten for Paradiso. Linnell paid the artist £130 for his work.
The drawings were n ot published at the time, b ut remained
with Linnell.
The mid-nineteenth-century Pıe-Raphaelite movement in
England brought about an appreciation o f Blake’s work
unsurprising, as the Pre-Raplıaelite artists and critics found
an afllnity with medieval culture (Da n te ’s milieu) and a
belief in the freedom o f tlıe individual (a tenet o f Blake),
an d his d rawings were exlıibited in L o n d o n ’s Royal
Academy. Ironically, Blake had studied at the Royal
Academy School in his early days. In 1913, the dravvings
were showıı at the Tate Gallery. Five years later, the Linnell
family sold tlıeir entire Blake collection at auction, and the
Dante drawiııgs were dispersed, goiııg to public galleries in
England, the United States, an d Austıalia.
From the o u t s e t o f tlıeir jo u rn e y froırı th e e n t r a n c e to
Hell to the u ltima te reward o f Heaven, D a n te a n d Virgil
e n c o u n te r a m u l t i tu d e o f g ro te sq u e scenes— a n d a numb
e r o f t r a n s c c n d e n t oııes. T h e expres s ive fine a n d c o lo r
o f Williaııı B la k e ’s vivid w a t e r c o lo r s im b u e th e s e
scenes, an d tlıeir subjects, with p a th o s , pity, a n d terror,
as well as lum in o u s joy.