The Vision of God 1825 - 1826

Editor: So, this is "The Vision of God," an etching and engraving by William Blake, dating back to 1825 or 1826. It's currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I’m immediately struck by its... intensity, almost a mystical quality created by the contrast of light and shadow. What leaps out at you when you look at it? Curator: Intensity is spot on, my dear. Blake, bless his soul, was always striving to depict the un-depictable, the divine made visible. What's so fascinating here is the sheer weight of the figures, bowed down and heavy with earthly experience, and then BAM, that light cascading down! Feels like divine energy almost physically imposing itself. You see that gesture of blessing or imposition, it really directs the narrative, doesn't it? How does that action strike *you*? Editor: It feels… weighty, like a profound responsibility being transferred. Also, the contrast with the figures huddled in darkness makes the moment of enlightenment all the more powerful. It’s almost overwhelming. I mean, it has texts at the top and bottom! How does all of that textual stuff shape how you see the image itself? Curator: Ah, yes, Blake and his love for the marriage of image and text! It’s crucial, really. He wasn't illustrating a story already told; he was *creating* a mythos, drawing from biblical language, but forging something entirely his own. Look at the lines, how they create both form and a sense of swirling energy, all guided by the inscriptions…It is such a Romantic notion – the artist as prophet! You feel it, don't you, that radical sense of a world remade? Editor: Definitely. It’s like he’s building his own symbolic language, bit by bit. The light and dark, the figures, the words... it’s all interconnected. Curator: Precisely! And now you’re fluent in Blake-speak! It's easy to be initially overwhelmed by these dense tableaus but focusing on that interconnectedness will really allow you to explore everything Blake is conveying! Editor: Absolutely. It’s a much more unified artwork now in my mind.