File:The Pastorals of Virgil, copy 1, object 5 Frontispiece bb504 2 5 com 300.jpg
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creator QS:P170,Q41513 |
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English: The Pastorals of Virgil, copy 1, object 5 (Bentley 504.5) "Illustrations of Imitation of Eclogue I. Frontispiece"
When planning a third edition of his successful school text, The Pastorals of Virgil, Robert John Thornton employed Blake to contribute some of the new designs for the two-volume work. Among his many other endeavors, Thornton was the physician for Blake's patron John Linnell, who probably played a key role in securing the commission. Blake's assignment was to illustrate Ambrose Philips' English "imitation" of Virgil's first eclogue. Blake first produced four small designs (the same designs reproduced here as object 6) as relief etchings on a single copperplate, but this was rejected by Thornton. There may have been several reasons, including the unconventional style of etching, the semi-nudity of some of the figures, and the difficulties letterpress printers would have encountered with such an unusual matrix. Apparently Blake was asked to prepare wood engravings, a medium in which he had never before worked, instead of relief etchings. He executed a series of at least twenty-one pen, pencil, and wash drawings; these were probably approved by Thornton. The wood engravings that Blake produced from them, however, were far less conventional. Thornton was again taken aback by Blake's bold transgression of contemporary styles and sensibilities. Several influential artists, including Linnell and Sir Thomas Lawrence, commended Blake's work; their opinions convinced Thornton to print them in his 1821 edition (objects 5-8, 10). Three designs (object 9) were engraved by a journeyman for the sake of comparison with Blake's own productions in wood, and Thornton added a statement below Blake's first design (object 5) implying his own hesitations about Blake's artistry. Pre-publication proofs of Blake's wood engravings show that each group of four were cut on a single block; these were cut apart, slightly reduced in size on all four sides, and printed with brief letterpress captions. This format, as published in Thornton's Virgil, is preserved in our reproductions. In addition to his original wood engravings, Blake contributed six copperplate intaglio engravings picturing famous classical figures (objects 1-4, 12, 13). He also executed a reduced drawing, perhaps directly on the woodblock, based on a painting by Nicolas Poussin. This was cut in the block by John Byfield (object 11). All these materials are included in our reproductions. Twenty of Blake's preliminary drawings, all executed in monochrome wash, were sold at auction from the Linnell collection in 1918. These are now widely dispersed; seven are untraced and one drawing in the group (Butlin 769.4) was not engraved. The present ownership of each drawing is given in the Editors' Notes for the relevant wood engravings (objects 6-10). Blake's original woodblocks are in the British Museum. Although small in size and almost rejected by the man who commissioned them, Blake's Virgil wood engravings have been among his most influential works. The young artists who gathered around Blake in his final years, including Samuel Palmer, George Richmond, and Edward Calvert, were deeply inspired by the Virgil engravings. Palmer called them "visions of little dells, and nooks, and corners of Paradise"—an encomium that ignores the darker implications of some designs. Several twentieth-century British artists, including Graham Sutherland, were also influenced by Blake's wood engravings. |
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1821 date QS:P571,+1821-00-00T00:00:00Z/9 |
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institution QS:P195,Q1400558 |
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Notes | Description copied from the William Blake Archive | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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institution QS:P195,Q7774989 http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/object.xq?objectid=bb504.2.comb.05&java=no |
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JPEG file comment | Object ID: PUBLIC"-//University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill::Carolina Digital Library and Archives::The William Blake Archive//NONSGML(US::Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens::137046::The Pastorals of Virgil::Object 5)//EN"
Title: The Pastorals of Virgil, copy 1 Object 5 (Bentley 504.5) Origination: William Blake: inventor, delineator, etcher, engraver Publisher: F. C. and J. Rivingtons, Longman and Co., Sherwood and Co., Whittaker and Co., Cadell and Co., Arch and Co., Black and Co., J. Richardson, Asperne, Souter, Sir Richard Phillips and Co., Rodwell and Co., Gosling, Cox, Highly, Bumpus, and Sharp.London Publication Date: 1821 Date of Composition: 1821 Print Date: 1821 Present Location and Contact Information Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens 1151 Oxford Road San Marino, California 91108 USA Telephone: 626-405-2100 Fax: 626-405-0225 URL: http://www.huntington.org/ Note: URL: http://www.blakearchive.org/ Sponsored by: Library of Congress, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and University of Rochester Funded by: The National Endowment for the Humanities, 2010-2013 Funded by: Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, University of Virginia, 1995-2007 Funded by: The National Endowment for the Humanities, 2000-02 Funded by: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 1997-98 Funded by: Inso Corporation (now Enigma Corporation), software grant, 1996-2006 Funded by: Sun Microsystems, hardware and software grants, 1996-2006 Funded by: The Getty Grant Program, 1995-98 Copyright (c) 2011 by Morris Eaves, Robert N. Essick, and Joseph Viscomi, all rights reserved. Items in the Archive may be shared in accordance with the Fair Use provisions of U.S. copyright law. Redistribution or republication on other terms, in any medium, requires express written consent from the editors and advance notification of the publisher, Carolina Digital Library and Archives. Permission to reproduce the graphic images in this archive has been granted by the owners of the originals for this publication only. This image copyright (c) 2011 Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.. Editors: Morris Eaves, Robert Essick, Joseph Viscomi Note: Information below pertains to the source file for the in-line 100 dpi and the enlarged 300 dpi JPEG (ISO/IEC 10918) images that are displayed in the Archive after having been individually color-corrected in Adobe Photoshop by the editors. The source files themselves are in TIFF format and are retained by the Archive's editors. Image Production Information
Huntington Library and Art Gallery Oct 26, 2001 John Sullivan Hasselblad 500c and Phase One Scanner back yes Width: 8.3 cm Height: 6.0 cm File Name: BB504.2.5.COM.300.TIFF File Size: 104.2 megabytes File Format: TIFF Input Dimensions44.0359.28 Input Resolution: 300 Input Pixel Depth: 8 Output Dimensions8.66.321:1 Final Resolution: 300 Output Pixel Depth: 8 Acc.no.137046 Contact information and certain other items recorded above are subjectto change over time. All information is accurate as of Thu Jan 20 10:05:42 EST 2011 |
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Width | 1,008 px |
Height | 1,488 px |
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Compression scheme | LZW |
Pixel composition | RGB |
Orientation | Normal |
Number of components | 3 |
Horizontal resolution | 300 dpi |
Vertical resolution | 300 dpi |
Data arrangement | chunky format |
Software used | Adobe Photoshop CS2 Macintosh |
File change date and time | 12:21, 21 January 2010 |
Color space | Uncalibrated |
Image width | 1,008 px |
Image height | 1,488 px |
Date and time of digitizing | 07:21, 21 January 2010 |
Date metadata was last modified | 07:21, 21 January 2010 |
IIM version | 2 |