William Blake, an amazing poet and a talented artist had a vision in his visit to Lambeth of a human standing in Heaven. This idea led Blake to the creation of his most favorite piece of art, “The Ancient of Days” made in 1794. The art piece was so special to him, he putted his copy of the artwork for his friend Tatham when he attended his funeral. He and his wife painted this illustration through watercolors and putted the painting on the front cover of his book filled with his poems called "Europe, a Prophecy" which he published in 1794 as well. This painting has inspired todays music and arts.
In this image, there is an old, but strong white hair, beard man standing on top of an orange sphere which represents the sun and surrounding the sphere are dark clouds. From his hand, the old man is shining a beam of light from his hand. During his time, William Blake didn’t believe in other religions, so he made his own mythology. The man in the picture is commonly known in William Blake’s mythology as Urizen. In the mythology of William Blake, Urizen is reasons, laws, traditions, and is a cruel God, but in the William Blakes book “The Book of Urizen” ( similar to the Book of Genesis in the Bible), Urizen is represented as a human being and their reasons. He is usually imaged as a bearded old man; he sometime holds measurement tools. The measurement tools represents creation of the world which is technically God said in the Bible as well.
As an artist and a poet, Blake is talented at showing his opinions to the world through his artwork. His works were considered to be evil or possessed by demons during his time because he was against religions, but today his arts and poems are fascinating with amazing details. “The Ancient of Days” is currently at the British Museum in London. His artwork may not have been well received during his lifetime, but today they are considered great masterpieces.William Blake is truly an artist.
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