The Order of Blake's Large Color Prints

Abstract

Blake's large color prints have been generally recognized as one of his greatest artistic achievements, and most scholars agree that they constitute a series whose meaning is in some sense related to that of his mythical narratives. Interpretation of this series has been gravely handicapped, however, by the lack of external evidence concerning the order of the individual prints within it. The technique by which the prints were produced has been carefully analyzed, and there have been illuminating discussions of some individual designs; but most accounts of the series as a whole remain hesitant and perplexed. Perplexity is entirely natural in this context, since the interpreter is faced with two mutually dependent questions: what is the correct order of these twelve prints, and what larger meanings emerge when they are viewed in that order? It is clear that these illustrations of biblical, Shakespearean, Miltonic, and Blakean subjects do not make up a single narrative comprehensible in literal terms; and it is equally clear, to anyone familiar with Blake's habits of mind, that the emblematic significance of each print contributes to an emblematic scheme addressed to the imaginative powers. Our interpretation of each print is somewhat inhibited, however, by uncertainty about its place in the series; and any argument about the meaning, or even the order, of the twelve prints as a group must inevitably make some assumptions about the meaning of each print on its own. For these reasons, the large color prints have proved harder to interpret than the first version of The Gates of Paradise, where the order of the emblematic engravings is clearly defined. In some respects, they have even proved harder to inter-