Nebuchadnezzar — William Blake
The biblical myth of the Babylonian king was captured in this painting, which contains several subtle but sophisticated narrative layers.
William Blake’s art is as genuine as it is mesmerizing.
With a style that travels between fantastic visions and deep symbolism, his work focused on illustrating poetic compositions (Milton’s Paradise Lost, for example) from his most symbolic, the most deepest point of view.
To approach his writing requires a great exercise of imagination because what Blake tries to transmit is not the themes of the poems he adapted but the sensations they provoked. His style could be considered a precursor of comics or graphic novels. It is a beautiful use of colors and shapes, in the same way that the modeling of human figures makes up a very easily recognizable technique. Several studies have been made on this way of proceeding, and most experts agree that Michelangelo’s style partly inspires it.
A great example is Nebuchadnezzar, painted around 1805. It summarizes part of the peculiarity of the English painter.
The writing shows a specific moment in the biblical history of King Nebuchadnezzar II, ruler of Babylon, between 604 and 562 BC.
