Concetti Chiave
- William Blake was a renowned English poet, artist, and engraver, born in 1757 in London to a poor family, and influenced by artists like Raffaello and Michelangelo.
- His literary collections "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience" reflect contrasting views of life, influenced by historical events like the French Revolution.
- Blake emphasized the power of imagination as a core element of human existence, opposing rationalism and advocating for the exploration of the soul's intimacy.
- He believed that art and literature should reflect eternal truths, free from materialistic and hedonistic influences, to elevate human understanding.
- Blake's artistic style was marked by the use of watercolor to convey emotional intensity and a sense of the infinite, avoiding oil paints to resist formalism.
William Blake's life and education
William Blake was born in London in 1757 in a poor family and he remained poor all his life.He was first of all an English poet, but also an artist and an engraver.
When he was 10 years old, his father sent him to a drawing school and so as we know he made a lot of drawings for the Divina Commedia written by Dante Alighieri and for Milton’s Paradise Lost.
He was influenced by Raffaello and by Michelangelo.
He supported the French Revolution and in particular its ideals though he rejected many of these political beliefs because he was disappointed for the end of the French Revolution in particular for the period of Terror.
William Blake's most famous literary masterpieces
Blake experiences contributed to the development of his poetry.The most remarkable were reunited in literary collections called “Song of Innocence” and “Songs of Experience”.
The 1st collection was written with the beginning of the French revolution and so we can see an optimistic view of the life while the 2nd collection was written after the revolution, when the period of Terror raged in Europe and so we can see a pessimistic view of the life.
The first collection is in the pastoral mode, the narrator is a shepherd who receives inspiration from a child in a cloud to tell his songs celebrating the divine in all creations. The child and the lamb are symbols of Innocence and so of the Jesus Christ.
The second collection is necessary that is read with the “Songs of Innocence” because the poet makes questions on the theme of the previous collection but there aren’t the answers.
The power of the intimacy in William Blake
William Blake usually stated that imagination can not be merely considered a state of mind because it is part of the human existence, if not it is the human existence in the purest form.Linked to that, it can be said that the higher and more obscure components of life, such as inspiration and religion, will not be found, at list not in the most powerful essence, outside themselves but inside them, in a state where the human being can be in touch with the most intimate part of the soul.
For this reason, Art and Literature mirror the Eternal and can not be corrupted by frivolous and hedonistic desires or the sinful senses that imprison the human in a carnal cage.
Everything is made by an infinite substance and the human should purify himself from all the perception in order to discover and understand this concept.
That’s also why he was so against Rationalism and the dominion of the reason that did not free the humanity, as promised, instead, it limited the mind and generated depression, misery and oppression.
William Blake’s style
The peculiarity of Blake’s literary and artistic style is his skill in reproducing the vigour of the energy of the sentiment and the intensity of the colours.He was coherent with his philosophy and he also tried to materialize it thorough the use of the watercolour while he rejected the oil paint because he thought he was a temptation of the formalism and a carnal pleasure.
In this way everything was painted in a more indefinite and airy way so that it could have been created the impression that all the world was inside a small detail of his work.
Domande da interrogazione
- What were the key influences on William Blake's artistic development?
- What is the significance of imagination in William Blake's philosophy?
William Blake was influenced by artists like Raffaello and Michelangelo, and his early education in a drawing school at age 10 played a significant role in his development as an artist and engraver.
Blake believed imagination was integral to human existence, representing the purest form of life, and that true inspiration and religion are found within oneself, beyond rationalism and material desires.
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