Blake
1757-1827
son of a hosier
married to his ideal woman>daughter of a gardener
poet, engraver
symbolism of the Gotic style, flowery decorations
Never left London
solituded
economic difficulties
imagination and symbolism
he marks the end of the Age of reason
spiritual vision
spirit more important than body
instict and intuition> education
spiritual vision than the physical world
anticipeted Romanticism
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exaltation of art
social conscience> knew the problems>sympathized (with)/supported the poors
He considered art as a creative vision
He attacked/criticised his time
Freedom
man was born free but during his life he is corrupted by society
(was in) favour of/ supported the American and French Revolutions
was against slavery, injustice, any type of institutions
supported women's rights
inspired by the Bible, Milton and Dante
religion but no orthodox
God was imagination and inspiration for the poet
no education expect in art
artist
created a combination of pictures and poetry, called illuminated printings(new form of art)
Prophetic books
envented symbolic characters to denounce authority
man was born with a special energy that was linked to freedom, imagination and childhood but social conventions destroyed/soffocated it > man had to experience joy and freedom through art
Church was guilty
progression > possible thanks to the tension between the complementary opposites> good, evil
imagination allows man to see the world and to understand the essence of things that ordinary people cannot see
for that the poet, God and the child are similar because all of them have a prophetic function
Style
Simple, linear, repetition, musical
symbols
child> innocence
father>experience
Christ> higher innocence