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Creator:
Print made by William Blake, 1757–1827
Title:
"I have mock'd those who refused cruelty..." (Plate 81)
Part Of:

Collective Title: Jerusalem: The Emanation of The Giant Albion, Copy E

Date:
1804 to 1820
Materials & Techniques:
Relief etching printed in orange ink, with watercolor, pen and black ink, and gold on moderately thick, smooth, cream wove paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 13 1/2 x 10 3/8 inches (34.3 x 26.4 cm), Plate: 8 3/8 x 5 7/8 inches (21.2 x 14.9 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:

Inscribed in orange ink, upper right: "81"

Lettered inside image: "I have mock'd those who refused cruelty, & I have admired | The cruel Warrior, I have refused to give love to Merlin the piteous. | He brings to me the Images of his Love & I reject in chastity | And turn them out into the streets for Harlots, to be food | To the stern Warrior. I am become perfect in beauty over my Warrior, | For Men are caught by Love: Woman is caught by Pride, | That Love may only be obtain'd in the passages of Death. | Let us look: let us examine: is the Cruel become an Infant | Or is he still a cruel Warrior? look Sisters, look! O piteous! | I have destroy'd Wand'ring Reuben who strove to bind my Will, | I have strip'd off Joseph's beautiful integument for my Beloved, | The Cruel-one of Albion, to clothe him in gems of my Zone. | I have named him Jehovah of Hosts. Humanity is become | A weeping Infant in ruin'd lovely Jerusalem's folding Cloud!"; center left, reversed: "In Heaven the only Art of Living | Is Forgetting & Forgiving | Especially to the Female | But if you on Earth Forgive | You shall not find where to Live"; lower center: "In Heaven Love begets Love: but Fear is the Parent of Earthly Love! | And he who will not bend to Love must be subdu'd by Fear."

Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1992.8.1(81)
Classification:
Prints
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
clouds | flames | literary theme | nude | nudes | religious and mythological subject | smoke | text | women
Access:
Accessible in the Study Room [Request]
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:3516
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William Blake insisted that Jerusalem, his final prophetic book, was divinely inspired. Of the five copies he printed in his lifetime, only the edition now at the Yale Center for British Art was colored. Blake described his narrative as a “Sublime Allegory,” which he divided into four chapters that correspond to spiritual stages of human history, addressed “To the Public,” “To the Jews,” “To the Deists,” and “To the Christians.” The text has been linked to biblical precedents, particularly the Book of Revelation, as it begins after a universal fall and ends with redemption. However, Jerusalem is not a straightforward expression of Christian devotion. The illuminated text offers a critique of organized religion at a moment of spiritual uncertainty across Europe. Blake called for radical religious reform by liberating faith from the corruption and dogmatism of institutional churches and reimagining it in modern terms.

Gallery label for the Critique of Reason: Romantic Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2015-03-06 - 2015-07-26)

William Blake: Visionary (The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2023-10-17 - 2024-01-14) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Critique of Reason : Romantic Art, 1760–1860 (Yale University Art Gallery, 2015-03-06 - 2015-07-26) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

William Blake (Tate Britain, 2000-11-02 - 2001-02-04) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Human Form Divine - William Blake from the Paul Mellon Collection (Yale Center for British Art, 1997-04-02 - 1997-07-06) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

William Blake : Visionary, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, p. 152, pl. 109, NJ18.B57 A12 2020 OVERSIZE (YCBA) [YCBA]


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