Enrolled in drawing school at age 10 and apprenticed to a master engraver of book illustrations and prints by 15, a steady and predictable print shop career awaited. The son of a middle-class tradesman in London, William Blake received vocational training rather than a classroom education.
They are part of a larger group of tempera and watercolor paintings executed for Blake’s most important patron, Thomas Butts.
#Epic dragon battle wallpaper series#
Three other watercolors of the Great Dragon passages appear in a series of works made by Blake between 18 that is based on the book of Revelation. For Blake, it is spiritual power-the purity and goodness represented by the woman-that always prevails, however horrific the circumstances. The earth will open up to swallow the water, and the thwarted dragon will fly away to wage war against the woman’s progeny, the followers of God. Yet the powerful image of the dragon’s outstretched arms and hers arcing toward each other in mirror image suggest that good and evil are a duality, like the dark and light sides of the moon, rather than completely independent forces. As the devil hovers to witness her demise, God grants her wings that carry her to safety. Below, a rising deluge invoked by the dragon–intended to engulf the woman-overwhelms the figures of hapless souls. Darkness and shadow fill the sky above like a storm cloud as the dragon’s wings stir a great wind and sweep her hair upward, flamelike. Sun bathes the woman’s figure and catches in the crescent sliver of moon on which she rests. His mission is to exact revenge on the woman who has given birth to a follower of God who will spread the Christian faith. Blake’s The Great Red Dragon and Woman Clothed in the Sun illustrates passages that describe “an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads” who descends upon “a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.” The dragon embodies Satan. The book of Revelation, the final book of the New Testament, contains a series of warnings to Christians to maintain and guard their faith, then relates a series of allegorical episodes that demonstrate the consequences of spiritual defection.
The stakes are no less than the fate of humankind. Sweeping lines cross the drawing and evoke the zigzag flash of lightning, whoosh of a gale, and flap of wings, imbuing the scene with tension. A cosmic battle between good and evil unfolds in this dramatic watercolor by romantic poet and visionary artist William Blake.
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