The great English poet, artist, philosopher William Blake created, referring only to future generations. He knew very well that only descendants would be able to appreciate his works. And now, at the turn of the XVIII - XIX centuries, it will not find recognition among contemporaries. He turned out to be right: all the secrets of his genius have not been revealed so far.
Life path
William Blake, with all his dull external events, does not give much scope to biographers. He was born in London in 1757 in a poor family of a shopkeeper, and lived there all his life until his death, up to seventy years. The care and participation of relatives, the admiration of a very narrow circle of his admirers and students - this is William Blake received in full. For some time he studied the craft of an engraver and subsequently earned it. The daily life that William Blake led was full of routine and daily bread. He was engaged in the manufacture of engravings on foreign originals, much less often - on his own. He created illustrations for Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the Book of Job. Here is one of the illustrations for Dante's “Whirlwind of Lovers”.
This is a powerful and terrible stream that does not occur to a simple layman, to which the artist did not fall. Therefore, when William Blake tried to establish himself as an artist, he was faced with a blank wall of misunderstanding. Only twenty years after his death, he was "open" to the general public by the Pre-Raphaelites. The world and diverse creative heritage that William Blake has left are still not fully understood. His spiritual biography is complex and filled with vivid events.
Poetry
One of the creative tasks that the poet has been solving throughout his life is the creation of a new mythological system, the so-called Bible of Hell. The most famous and of its kind, a perfect work - "Songs of Innocence and Experience." His poems are pointless to consider each separately. They are interconnected by many subtlest threads and acquire true sound only in the context of the entire cycle.
Inner experiences
He had decades when he fell silent for a long time. This shows his painful and intense spiritual quest. Contemporaries did not understand him, but perhaps that is why his work was focused on his inner vision. And it was macro- and microcosmogonic, bold, fantastic, with an unusual play of lines and a sharp composition. This William Blake, whose paintings were not accepted by contemporaries, amazes us now. He took them from the world that he knew or saw before. This is the very Blake who saw infinity in the palm of his hand and eternity in one hour. "Newton" is one of his most famous paintings.
In it, the physicist is represented by the Great Architect of the Universe with one of the Masonic symbols in his hands. William Blake anticipated Dali, who would claim the title of world's first artist in the field of quantum physics. No, Salvador Dali was late for a long time.
Albion's Past
England is ruled by its mythological past, believed William Blake. The paintings are written on the themes of the Celts and Druids, who possessed special knowledge and myths.
It is the memories of them, according to Blake, that can reveal previously hidden truths.
Bible Illustrations
Creating illustrations for the Bible, he does not write the shepherds or baby Jesus, but mystically sees Satan. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is one of his books, written in imitation of the biblical books of prophecy. This is what we see in his paintings. What William Blake wrote, “The Red Dragon” is a series of watercolor paintings created to illustrate the Bible, the book of Revelation of St. John the Evangelist. This is a Big Red Dragon with seven heads and crowns on them. His tail “swept” a third of the stars from heaven to earth. These paintings depict the dragon in various scenes.
The first painting is "The Big Red Dragon and the Woman, Dressed in the Sun." It is interpreted by various theologians something like this. The wife is the Church, the light of Christ, and the sun above her is sacred. In torment, she gives birth to a child whom the dragon intends to devour. But she manages to escape.
Out of rage, the dragon lets in water, which should swallow both the wife and the earth.
He is incredibly scary and confident in his strength.
Some modern views on theology
One can look at these horrors differently. The Church of Christ was created as a place of Love and Mercy. There was no devil in the original teaching. His idea paradoxically developed and gained strength during the Middle Ages as well as the idea of Hell to control the souls of the flock. On the one hand, Paradise is a carrot, on the other, Hell is a whip to which the devil pushes a person. So the Devil gained through the efforts of the Church an extraordinary power. And now it is an exhibit close to the museum. Few seriously think about it.
But this does not detract from Blake's work. They suggest thinking about what is Good and what is Evil. He was a prophet and foresaw much, as did his own death.
At six o'clock in the evening on the day of his death, Blake felt her, promised his wife that he would always be with her, and died. So what was death for him?