BLAKE, William
(b. 1757, London, d. 1827, London)

Nebuchadnezzar

1795
Copper engraving with pen and ink and watercolour, 446 x 620 mm
Tate Gallery, London

Blake produced in the mid-1790s a series of large colour prints on themes of oppression, one of which is Nebuchadnezzar. This plate depicts the animal state to which man had been reduced after the Fall, so vividly personified in the crouching form and sullen stare of his Nebuchadnezzar.