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Christopher Rowland, Dean Ireland’s Emeritus Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture, University of Oxford.

‘John Saw these things Reveald in Heaven On Patmos Isle’: the Book of Revelation anticipates Blake’s Apocalypse.

The words and images of William Blake (1757-1827) typify the meaning of ‘apocalypse’. Indeed, ‘unveiling’ that which is ‘veiled’, whether in our minds and habits, in Christian doctrine and practice, and political structures and ideology, are at the heart of Blake’s work. Blake never used the word ‘apocalypse’ or ‘apocalyptic, though Samuel Taylor Coleridge used the word of Blake when he described him as an ‘apo-, or rather ana-calyptic Poet, and Painter’. The Book of Revelation, theparadigmatic apocalypse, profoundly influenced Blake’s texts and images. It is no surprise that images from Revelation make their appearance among his images, especially the pictures he painted of biblical scenes. How Blake interpreted the Apocalypse in his art will be the particular concern of this paper, though attention will be given to the wider influence of apocalyptic themes in his thought.
One aim of this conference is to explore what the art unveils to us. That is entirely in tune with what Blake intended in his texts and images. Blake wrote to a client, who wanted an explanation of his images, that this was unnecessary and was a task for the viewer. His role as an artist was to paint that which was ‘not too explicit as the fittest for Instruction, because it rouzes the faculties to act’.

Apocalypse in Art: The Creative Unveiling conference

June 2018