Colinet's Journey: Milestone Marked 'LXII Miles to London', from Thornton's "Pastorals of Virgil" 1821

Curator: This compelling landscape is titled "Colinet's Journey: Milestone Marked 'LXII Miles to London'," created around 1821 by William Blake, part of his illustrations for Thornton's "Pastorals of Virgil." It's a wood engraving, a medium that allows for such stark contrasts. Editor: My first thought is just how much drama Blake coaxes out of all this black and white. It's almost a brooding moodiness, yet with that figure there, on the left... there’s this undeniable feeling of movement or purpose. Curator: Absolutely. It’s important to consider that Blake’s illustrations for Virgil were meant to be more than simple decorations. They were interventions. Blake critiqued the idealization of rural life, hinting at the social and political realities obscured by pastoral fantasies. Editor: Ah, an intervention! I love that. Because it hits me – this isn’t some sweet countryside stroll; it feels charged with some deeper... anxiety. Like this figure carries the weight of, what, sixty-two miles to London? Curator: Indeed, the milestone itself is quite prominent, signaling both distance and the potential of travel. We must analyze who gets to undertake such journeys. During Blake’s time, agrarian life was increasingly fraught with issues of land enclosure and class disparity. So, this idyllic journey transforms into one that implicates social structures and inequities. Editor: Okay, I see how that unease is so brilliantly woven into this little woodcut. Even technically, look how stark the milestone is –almost aggressively placed in the composition. But beyond that, what does this mean for figures such as this man walking down the path? Curator: It signifies more than the physical distance of those sixty-two miles. London represented opportunity, but it was also rife with exploitation. So, what appears to be a simple, directional marker subtly references profound, systemic dilemmas embedded within journeys dictated by hope, necessity, and precarity. Editor: Hmm, I am beginning to consider what this precarity felt like! Knowing this, it shifts the entire experience of the work. Now that little milestone shouts to me. Curator: Blake, throughout his career, pushed against dominant artistic and political narratives. This Virgil illustration is no different – using an ostensibly pastoral scene to prompt inquiries into societal and personal realities. Editor: What a clever little disruption. Who knew such a tiny engraving could pack such a potent punch? Curator: Indeed. These pastorals provided Blake a platform to inject urgent socio-political commentary right into a widely beloved, conventional context. Editor: I will be thinking about these journeys, literal and metaphorical, for a long time.