Milton, a poem in 2 books Pl.22
19th century
William Blake was the ultimate DIY artist, inventing a method called 'illuminated printing' to bypass greedy publishers. On this page from his epic poem *Milton*, you can see his genius at work: dense, swirling text acts as a backdrop for tiny, vibrant scenes of mythological figures. Blake believed he was channeling visions from angels, and he imagined the poet John Milton returning from the dead to fix his own spiritual mistakes. He and his wife Catherine hand-colored every single copy of these books, meaning no two pages look exactly alike—it's like a medieval manuscript had a psychedelic Romantic fever dream!
- Technique
- Relief etching with hand coloring
- Material
- Paper, ink, watercolor
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