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Satan, Sin, and Death: Satan Comes to the Gates of Hell (c 1806)
William Blake (1757-1827)
pen and watercolor with gold highlights on paper,
19 1/2 x 15 7/8 inches
The Huntington's collection of works by William Blake, a leading artist and poet of the Romantic period, is one of the finest in the world. The institution owns two versions of this illustration to the passage in John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost (Book II) in which Satan (left) on his way to tempt Adam and Eve is confronted by Death, whose insubstantial nature is indicated by his transparent form. Sin, the daughter of Satan in the center, is depicted as half-woman and half-serpent. Separating the warring figures, she reveals that Death is the offspring of her and her father. This larger version is part of a series, now dispersed. The Huntington owns the entire second set, done in a smaller format. |
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