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Drawings

Illustration 1 to Milton's "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity": The Descent of Peace

1 of 4
Type
Drawings(Opens in new tab)
Date
ca. 1814-1816
Accession number
000.14
Maker
William Blake(Opens in new tab) (British, 1757–1827)
Dimensions
6 1/4 x 4 15/16 in. (15.9 x 12.6 cm.) mount: 14 x 9 7/16 in. (35.5 x 24 cm.)
Medium
pen and watercolor
Description
Blake begins the series with a Nativity scene clearly implied by, but not described in, the introductory stanzas (1-21) and the first three stanzas of "The Hymn" (20-52). We see the traditional stable as though in cross section, framed by beams in the form of a Gothic archway or the outline of a stained-glass window. The stable provides an architectural equivalent to the "House of mortal Clay" (14), the human body in which Christ is incarnate. Within, the infant Jesus springs into the air with a suffusion of light around His entire form. His energetic posture associates Him with "Albion rose," an intaglio plate Blake first executed ca. 1793 (see 000.24), and with Orc, a representative of revolution in Blake's poetry of the 1790s who like Jesus brings a new dispensation to mankind. [2] To the right are the "Virgin Mother" (3) and Joseph, both with halos. Mary kneels on some straw and leans back against her husband as though swooning with exhaustion or ecstasy after the divine birth. On the left are the young John the Baptist and his mother, St. Elisabeth, both with arms outstretched to welcome the Saviour. The bearded figure behind them is probably John's father, Zacharias. Two oxen stand in the back of the stable, their muzzles hidden in what may be hay or straw. The presentation of the Holy Family, St. Elisabeth, the oxen, and even the square window at the back of the stable is based closely on Blake's tempera of ca. 1799-1800, "The Nativity" (Philadelphia Museum of Art; Butlin 1981, No. 401), with right and left reversed and some minor changes in positions, costumes, and faces. The infant John sits in his mother's lap in the tempera, but he holds his hands close to his chin in prayer and Zacharias is not pictured. Personified "Peace" (46) descends from a tripartite "turning sphere" (48), her arms and each "Turtle wing… dividing" (50) the clouds and complementing the triangular roof line of the stable. In her left hand she holds "her myrtle wand" (51). Her wings and outstretched arms are similar to those of the humanized bird in "Night Startled by the Lark" among Blake's illustrations of ca. 1816-20 to Milton's "L'Allegro" (Pierpoint Morgan Library; Butlin 1981, No. 543.2). Below the stable is the female form of "Nature" (32). Although Milton describes her "in awe" before "the Heav'n-born child" (30, 32), Blake pictures Nature looking, and perhaps raising her head, toward Peace. "Innocent Snow" (39) covers the foreground and frosts what is presumably vegetation (trailing over poles?) on each side of the stable. In the earlier, Whitworth version, the position of Peace is reversed so that her feet are on the right and the myrtle wand is in her left hand. She is "crown'd with Olive green" (47), a headdress only vaguely suggested, if present at all, in the Huntington version. A prominent cloud band separates the three concentric circles from the stable and descends around Peace's wand (see 50). There are only three people in the stable: Mary, seated on a pile of straw and holding the infant Jesus in her arms, and Joseph standing behind them and leaning over-but not supporting-Mary. Spiky rays emanate from Christ's head, a halo graces Mary's, and a gentle light glows around Joseph's head. On the left are two oxen eating from a large "manger" (31). There is no window in the back wall of the stable. This detail, as well as the positioning of all figures, indicates that Blake borrowed from his tempura "Nativity" only for the later, Huntington version. Nature's position is reversed, with her head on the left. She holds her hands in prayer but does not raise her head from the snow-covered ground. "Innocent Snow" (39) also covers her backside. The background on each side of the stable is filled with an abstract pattern of enlarged snowflakes or frost-covered leaves. A pencil sketch of the design is in the National Gallery of Art, Washington (Butlin 1981, No. 539). Peace descends with her feet on the right, as in the Whitworth design. Other features link the sketch to the later version: Christ's position, the presence of John and Elizabeth, and Nature's position with her head on the right (but lifted higher than in either watercolor). Zacharias is not pictured. Mary's head was first outlined in an upright position, but then moved back to lean against Joseph, as in the Huntington design. Thus, the sketch would appear to be a transition between the two watercolors. Notes 1. See for example the babe in flames on Pl. 20 of The Book of Urizen (1794). The relationship between Orc and Blake's concept of Jesus in his nineteenth-century work is most complex; the figures are not equivalent. Yet the association of Orc with the infant Jesus in these illustrations is supported by the fact that the beginning of Blake's Europe (1794), a poem in which Orc is a major character, is based closely on the "Nativity Ode."
Credit
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens
Department
European Art
Find out more
View in the Art Museum catalog(Opens in new tab)
The Christ child leaps into life, with his parents Mary and Joseph on the right and St. John the Baptist and his parents on the left. The incarnation unfolds within the traditional stable, with oxen upper left. A personification of Nature awakens to a new life below the stable, while the human form of heavenly Peace descends above its roof.

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