A nude male throws chains around a serpentine creature
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

At center is a nude male figure with his back to the viewer. In his right hand, he lifts an over sized key, while a large metal chain is draped over his shoulder. He bends down at the waist, gripping the chain with his left hand and holding it up to the humanoid face of a serpentine creature. The creature looks up in horror at the man who has wound the chain around its body which coils behind him, trailing in the distance.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1915.8
People
William Blake, British (London, England 1757 - 1827 London, England)
Title
The Angel Michael Binding Satan ("He Cast him into the Bottomless Pit, and Shut him up")
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
c. 1805
Culture
British
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/298817

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Watercolor, black ink, and graphite on off-white wove paper
Dimensions
35.9 x 32.5 cm (14 1/8 x 12 13/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Gift of W. A. White

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of W. A. White
Accession Year
1915
Object Number
1915.8
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Catalogue of Books, Engravings, Water-colors & Sketches by William Blake, exh. cat., The Grolier Club (New York, 1905), p. 127, cat. no. 90e
  • Fogg Art Museum Handbook, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1936), ill. p. 112
  • Anthony Blunt, "Blake's Pictoral Imagination", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes (1943), Vol. 6, pp. 190-212, p. 199, repr. as pl. 56c
  • "Blake at 200", Time (December 23, 1957), p. 52, repr.
  • Search for Innocence: Primitive and Primitivistic Art of the 19th Century, exh. cat., University of Maryland (College Park, MD, 1975), pp. 75-77, cat. no .7, repr. p 77 as fig. 21
  • Corlette Rossiter Walker, William Blake in the Art of His Time, exh. cat., University Art Museum, University of California Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara, 1976), p. 20, cat. no. 1, repr. cover and frontispiece
  • Martin Butlin, The Paintings and Drawings of William Blake, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 1981), no. 524, pl. 585
  • Kathleen Raine, The Human Face of God: William Blake and the Book of Job, Thames & Hudson (London, 1982), pp. 229, 232, pl. 108
  • Jerry D. Meyer, "The Woman Clothed with the Sun: Two Illustrations to St. John's Revelation by William Blake", Studies in Iconography, Arizona State University (Tempe, 1988), Vol. 12, pp. 151-152, repr. p. 151 as fig. 3
  • Kathleen Campbell, "Mysticism, Science and Technology", Exposure, Society for Photographic Education (Dallas, TX, 1997), vol. 31 1/2, fig. 5, p. 7
  • Nancy Grubb, Revelations of the Apocalypse, Abbeville Press (New York, London, Paris, 1997), repr. p. 111 (color)
  • Michael Löwy and Robert Sayre, Romanticism Against the Tide of Modernity, Duke University Press (Durham/London, 2001), repr. on cover (color)
  • Carl-Johan Malmberg, Stjärnan I Foten: dikt och bild bok och tanke hos William Blake, Wahlström & Widstrand (Stockholm, 2013), repr. in color on p. 350; p. 447
  • Kenneth Gross, "Blake and Bloom, a Memorial Note", Blake/ An Illustrated Quarterly (Winter 2019-2020), Vol. 53, no. 3, repr.

Exhibition History

  • Exhibition of the Works of William Blake, The Grolier Club, 01/26/1905 - 02/25/1905
  • Watercolors from the Fogg: An Historical Collection, St. Paul's School, Concord, 10/12/1971 - 11/20/1971
  • Search for Innocence: Primitive and Primitivistic Art of the 19th Century, University of Maryland Art Gallery, 10/29/1975 - 12/10/1975
  • William Blake in the Art of His Time, University Art Museum, University of California Santa Barbara, 02/24/1976 - 03/28/1976

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu