Willian Blake (1757-1827) was an extraordinary, philosopher, painter, poet and writer who was so eccentric that a number of researchers have examined the question ‘Was Blake mad?’
I have in the past examined that question and although his work was sometimes very imaginative, he never in my opinion exhibited any signs that he was suffering from any form of neurosis or mental disturbance. Undoubtedly though he was one of the foremost artists of the English Enlightenment, always ensuring that imagination came to the fore.
Before getting into Blake’s theory in detail I should explain what it is that the artist brings to the viewer that may not be obvious to the viewer – perhaps one might express this another way and ask what is the purpose of art? This was answered very clearly by Michael Podro who wrote:
- Art reveals through the skill of the artist some aspect of a subject that would not be immediately apparent.
- The artist’s depiction of an object makes a reference to the perceptual process of the viewer which enables an understanding to be achieved through, for example, the use of analogy.
- The artist engages with the state of mind of the viewer to achieve an elevated or heightened emotional response to the work of art which may suggest a transcendence that lies behind the objects depicted.[i]
Blake’s theory, falling initially into the first of the Podro categories outlined above concerned with mimesis (characterisation by mimicry or resemblance), followed the classical theory which gives prominence to line over form or colour. Flexible form and the emphasis on line develops, Blake suggests, from the evolution of the temple – the buildings which, for the Greeks, had considerable religious significance. The Greeks were also concerned with the ideal – that in the words of Aristotle ‘Art completes what nature cannot bring to a finish.’[ii] In discussing this statement Kenneth Clark (1903-1983) highlights in The Nude – a Study of Ideal Art Blake’s comment that ‘All Forms are Perfect in the Poet’s Mind but these are not Abstracted or compounded from Nature, but are from Imagination.’[iii] Summarising, Clark writes:
What both Reynolds and Blake meant by ideal beauty was really the diffused memory of that particular physical type which was developed in Greece between the years of 480 and 440 B.C. and which in varying degrees of intensity and consciousness, furnished the mind of Western man with a pattern of perfection from the Renaissance until the present century.[iv]
Whereas Clark was content to accept Blake’s theory about art perfecting form and accepted that Blake had ‘an exceptional power of secreting retinal images’ he felt that Blake was unable to achieve that ‘long and painful interaction between ideal form remembered and natural appearances observed, which is the foundation of all great drawing from Michelangelo to Degas’.[v] At this stage in the development of Blake’s theory, there is little to suggest that he would later break away from the views of the prominent art historian of the time, Johann Winckelmann (1717-1768), but whereas the latter was keen to ensure that rational thought would underlie his views on the Greek Ideal, Blake would depart from this attention to the rational, by giving much greater prominence to the use of the imagination.[vi]
Setting aside the question of Blake’s practical ability and continuing to think in terms of Podro’s categories Blake highlighted three different types of copying which take us from mimesis towards the spiritual and the expression of transcendence . First there are the ‘direct “servile” copies “both of Nature and Art” that are the musical scales of the visual artist, learning the “language of Art” by copying’.[vii] The second form of copying is the imitation of nature, with the third being the copying of ‘imaginative forms from the artist’s own mind, which is the copying every artist should be trying to do’.[viii] In Blake’s own words:
The great and golden rule of art, as well as of life is this:
That the more distinct, sharp and wirey (sic) the bounding line, the more perfect the work of art; and the less keen and sharp, the greater is the evidence of weak imitation, plagiarism and bungling. Great inventors, in all ages, knew this: Protogenes and Apelles knew each other by this line. Rafael {sic} and Michael Angelo, and Durer, are known by this and this alone. The want of this determinate and bounding form evidences the want of idea in the artist’s mind, and the pretence of the plagiary in all its branches.[ix]
Although line, form and the approach to the ideal in art proposed by Aristotle were very important to Blake, the imagination, as mentioned above, was all important. Unsurprisingly Blake had his own very precise way of thinking about the ‘Imagination’, which is set out clearly by David Erdman (1911-2011) and summarised by Morris Eaves as follows:-
The imagination…is “the Man” who can know immediately:
[God =] Imagination or the Human Eternal Body in Every Man
[Spirit =] Imagination or the Divine Body in Every Man.
If this definition is placed within the comment above that ‘All Forms are Perfect in the Poet’s Mind but these are not Abstracted or compounded from Nature, but are from Imagination’, then we can see that Blake is clearly referring to the art which falls into the third of Pedro’s categories. To recapitulate, this is art which endeavours to express the concept of transcendence existing beyond the images depicted.
At this juncture it is worth highlighting the work of the art historian Ernst Gombrich (1909-2001) who suggests that in examining an image, there are three components to the analysis – representation, symbolisation and expression.[x] I would propose that in Blake’s philosophy of art, symbolisation and expression are merged into one and are given precedence over representation by the artist. From this it follows that the personality and character of the artist attains an importance that would not apply to an artist working only in the area of copying that which he or she sees. The fine judgement that needs to be made by the viewer is to consider the extent to which transcendence has been revealed in a work of art; that is, in the interaction between the viewer and the artist there will follow an emotional response the value of which can only be judged by the viewer.
The question that arises and cannot be avoided in this short essay is: Is the artist of the Romantic period constrained by convention from showing the truth as he sees it, even though the ugliness of a particular truth may awake aversion in the mind of the viewer as well as giving some intimation of that which lies beyond the veil? Raphael’s early work Crucifixion with the Virgin SS Jerome, Mary Magdalen and John the Baptist (c. 1503), for example, shows no signs of the real anguish but in his slightly later work, e.g. the Death of Ananias (1515) signs of the true horror are being shown. Closer to the time of Blake, and later still, for example in the work of Hogarth, the full range of human emotion is displayed and in the twentieth century we see extreme anguish expressed in the work of Francis Bacon (1909-1992).
To summarise Blake’s theory of art one can emphasise two aspects – first line should take precedence over form and secondly and perhaps most importantly imagination must take precedence over rationality. I would add that Blake was not against the scientific endeavour that was characteristic of the Enlightenment – he was very much aware of its importance. However, he was concerned that in the rush for advancing scientific discovery, it was most important that the imagination should not be neglected. Perhaps this could be re-expressed as a thought for the 21st Century: One should not over compartmentalise the distinction between Science and the Arts – the open minded (non-reductionist) scientist may well have much to contribute to such complex subjects as the study of consciousness or indeed to the subject of theology – the Queen of the Sciences.
As a footnote I would conclude this article by emphasising that William Blake is a fascinating subject for study. He has been written about by more art-historians than any other artist but it is not only in the field of visual culture that he is worthy of study. As well as an artist and poet, he was a mystic and very much influenced by the spiritual writings of Swedenborg and the New Jerusalem Movement that was current in London during his time.
Dr David Greenwood d.greenwood@uwtsd.ac.uk July 2020
[i] Podro, Michael. The Manifold in Perception – theories of art from Kant to Hildebrand. Oxford. Clarendon Press 1972. Pages 1-6.
[ii] Clark, K The Nude – A Study of Ideal Art London The Reprint Society 1958 p. 9. quoting Aristotle.
[iii] Clark, K. p. 11, quoting Blake. To Blake form and outline were synonymous.
[iv] Ibid. p. 11.
[v] Ibid. p. 207.
[vi] A full discussion of the relationship between beauty and proportion, which was so important to ancient Greek philosophy, is beyond the scope of this article, but I would refer the reader to Clark’s The Nude where a full disquisition can be found on pages 13 to 25 and indeed in the chapters beyond.
[vii] Eaves, M. p. 28.
[viii] Ibid. p.29.
[ix] Myrone, M. (ed) Seen in My Visions – A descriptive catalogue of pictures by William Blake London Tate Publishing 2009 pp. 84-5.
[x] Gombrich, E. Symbolic Images Studies in the art of the Renaissance London Phaidon Press 1972 p 124
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