ancient of days

I accidentally went to the wrong Tate for the Blake exhibition. More of that another day. So here I was - eventually - in the Tate Britain, entering the mythical gods and dark world of the William Blake exhibition, where God judges Adam.

We get Blake's portrayal of otherworlds, gods and science, as well as his own invented mythology.

I guess he’d have been a heavy metal album cover designer in more modern times. But no, this is 1795 and the years beyond. Different rooms showed his ever increasing size of canvas, from tiny matchbox-sized sketches through to wall coverings and even a few digital exhibits to show the well-meaning scale he’d envisage but could not recreate.

His mental models show the scale of his thinking. Deities, sometimes free, sometimes imprisoned. The spectre of a demon hovering over many scenes. Serpents writhe, kings are terrified, the Pope visits Hell. There's the ghost of a flea, where Blake considered all fleas were troubled souls out seeking blood. Notice the bucket.

Blake learnt to draw at the Royal Academy, but was disdainful of the lessons he received.

Apparently, in those days there was much light touch tuition and artists were expected to fend for themselves. Blake lived around Soho and was the son of a shopkeeper.

He learnt the trade of printmaking and there are some epic bank-note quality engravings in one of the rooms. The nature of his trade meant that he would have been familiar with many artists and their styles, being responsible for making the engraved copies used in the print shop.

Then we see his little book, Songs of Innocence and Experience, complete with its handwritten embedded text. He’d make do with the limits of the printing technology available, which could not print pictures and text together.

Onwards, through Dante's circles and towards commissioned works, including a whole bundle to a single sponsor. Add back Blake's words which coalesce with an altogether powerful presence. Here's Jerusalem.

There’s allegories to decode with chained monarchs rolling the sun, scaly beasts and angels. Newton appears directly and indirectly in the collection, and Edwardo Paolozzi echoed Blake's Newton in the sculpture in the grounds of the British Library.