English poet and artist William Blake: biography, creativity

The great English poet, painter, philosopher William Blake worked, addressing only to future generations. He firmly knew that only the descendants would be able to appreciate his works. And now, at the turn of the XVIII - XIX centuries, will not find recognition among contemporaries. He was right: all the secrets of his genius have not been revealed so far.

Life Path

William Blake with all his dim external life events does not give much scope to biographers. He was born in London in 1757 in a small family of a shopkeeper, and lived there all his life until his death, to seventy years. Care and participation of relatives, the admiration of a very narrow circle of his admirers and students is William Blake Received in full. For some time he studied the engraver's craft and subsequently earned it. The daily life led by William Blake was full of routine and daily bread. He was engaged in making prints on other people's 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 "The Whirlwind of Lovers." This is a powerful and terrible flow that will not come to the mind of a common man in the street, to which the artist did not descend. So when William Blake tried to establish himself as an artist, he came across a blank wall of misunderstanding. Only twenty years after his death for the general public, he was "open" pre-Raphaelites. Not understood until the end is still the world and the diverse creative heritage that William Blake left. His spiritual biography is complex and full of vivid events.

Poetry

One of the creative tasks that the poet has solved throughout his life is the creation of a new mythological system, the so-called Bible of Hell. The most famous and in its own way the perfect work is "Songs of Innocence and Experience". His poems are meaningless to consider each separately. They are interconnected by a multitude of subtle threads and acquire true sound only in the context of the whole cycle.

Internal experiences

He had decades when he fell silent for a long time. This shows his painful and tense 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 microcosmic, bold, fantastic, with an unusual play of lines and an acute composition. This William Blake, whose paintings have not been accepted by contemporaries, amazes us now. He took them from the world that he knew or had seen before. This is the same Blake, who saw infinity in the palm of his hand and eternity in one hour. "Newton" - one of the most famous of his 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 will claim the title of the world's first artist in the field of quantum physics. No, Salvador Dali was late for a long time.

The Past of Albion

England is ruled by its mythological past, William Blake considered. The paintings are written on themes of Celts and Druids, who possessed special knowledge and myths. It is the memories of them, in Blake's opinion, that can reveal previously hidden truths.

Illustrations for the Bible

While creating illustrations for the Bible, he does not write shepherds or the baby Jesus, but mystically sees Satan. "The marriage of Heaven and Hell" - 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 designed to illustrate the Bible, the book of Revelation of John the Divine. This is a big red dragon with seven heads and crowns on them. His tail "dared" a third of the stars from heaven to earth. These pictures depict the dragon in various scenes. The first picture is "A big red dragon and wife dressed in the sun". By different theologians, it is interpreted approximately like this. The wife is the Church, the light of Christ, and the sun above it is sacred. In torment, she gives birth to a child whom the dragon intends to devour. But she manages to escape. From rage, the dragon lets in water, which should absorb both the wife and the earth. He is incredibly scary and confident in his strength.

Some modern views on theology

You 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 - a carrot, on the other - Hell - a whip, to which a person is pushed by the devil. Thus, the Devil gained extraordinary strength through the efforts of the Church. And now this exhibit is close to the museum. Few people 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, like his own death. At six o'clock in the evening on the day of his death, Blake felt it, promised his wife that she would always be with her, and died. So what was death for him?