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WILLIAM BLAKE - ANCIENT OF DAYS
_British_Museum.jpg)
Public
domain, via
Wikimedia Commons.
William Blake's Ancient of Days, 1794 |
- The Ancient of Days is a design by William Blake, originally published as the frontispiece to the 1794 work
Europe a Prophecy.
- It draws its name from one of
God's titles in the Book of Daniel and shows Urizen crouching in a circular design with a cloud-like background. His outstretched hand holds a compass over the darker void below.
- The same concept of a crouching figure holding a compass was used by Blake in his Newton, completed the next year.
- As noted in Alexander Gilchrist's 1863 book, Life of William Blake, the design of The Ancient of Days was
'a singular favorite with Blake and as one it was always a happiness to him to copy.'
- As such there are many versions of the work extant, including one completed for Frederick Tatham only weeks before Blake's death.
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Early critics of Blake noted the work as amongst his best, and a favorite of the artist himself. A description by Richard Thompson in John Thomas Smith's Nollekens and His Times, was of "... an uncommonly fine specimen of art, and approaches almost to the sublimity of Raffaelle or Michel Angelo", and as representing the event given in the Book of Proverbs viii. 27 (KJV), when he set a compass upon the face of the earth.
(Wikipedia)
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