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Vizija uivotu i delu vilijema blejka
(Viziuni în viaţa şi opera lui William Blake)
Jelena KRNETA
Universitatea din Belgrad, Serbia
Abstract
The art and poetry of William Blake is exquisite, but apart of being the artist and the poet he was visionary above all. That includes being thinker, spiritualist, mystic and modern prophet.
His work was absolutely exeptional concerning the time and historical background in which it had been created, but as well as concerning our contemporary perspective. He had been creating in a period of transition in the european history, in the times of revolutions and when romanticism had been replacing neoclassicism. Although he is usually considered as the artist of romanticism, he never really and completely belonged to any historical art movement, nor his art could have ever been fully defined or interpreted. He always remained independent by creating and describing his own Universe, but also the Universe we are all living in, but never really experiencing it as he did, as the absolute and infinite. He was always completely devoted only to his inner guide – the Imagination in his creative process, so he was considered a rebell and even a madman by his contemporaries.
He was deeply spiritual, but never really traditionally religious. He created his own mythology and characters and his art is fully symbolic. Sources of his inspiration, apart of his vision and imagination, are various. It is known that he had been delighted and influenced by medieval art, and most of his art are iluminated books (illuminated manuscripts were very known and spreaded form of medieval art and painting) that so successfully combined his poetry and painting, even though his technique and expression are original and very unique. His motives and representations oftenly seem to be monumental, almost comparable with some of great mannirist wall decorations (of Michelangelo and Gulio Romano), but yet they are just book illuminations, which make his art even greater. Unfotunately, his art was not understood, excepted or praised during his lifetime. Most of his life he had spent poorly and in isolation, but yet happy and fullfilled by his freedom and creativity, because glory ment nothing to him. He was a genious, artist and visionary in its wholeness!
Umetnik: pesnik, grafi~ar i slikar, a pre svega vizionar, mistik, mislilac, spiritualista i moderni prorok. Sve ovo je otelotvoreno u li~nosti Vilijama Blejka.
Poku{a}u da kao okosnicu i kostur razmatranja njegovog sveobuhvatnog dela koristim neke hronolo{ke odrednice njegovog `ivotnog puta, da bi se, ako je to uop{te mogu}e kada se razmi{lja i poku{ava da analizira, objasni i razume Blejk i njegovo delo, uveo neki logi~ki redosled ili bar ne{to {to bi poslu`ilo kao mapa za lak{e kretanje kroz nepoznate krajeve ili lavirinte ljudskog postojanja i beskona~nosti, koje je fascinirano otkrivao i prezentovao svojim stvarala{tvom.
Knji`evno i likovno delo Vilijema Blejka je u potpunosti vanredno, kako u odnosu na vreme i istorijske tokove u kojima je nastalo, tako i posmatrano iz dana{nje perspektive. @iveo je i stvarao na prelazu u novu epohu evropske istorije, u doba revolucija u Americi i Francuskoj, u doba kada je na umetni~koj sceni neoklasicizam zamenjivao romantizam. Ipak on nikada nigde nije u potpunosti pripadao, niti se njegovo stvarala{tvo moglo jasno definisati. Naprotiv, ostao je nezavisan, kreiraju}i i opisuju}i svoj sopstveni Univerzum ili bolje re~eno svet u kome svi `ive, ali ga ne do`ivljavaju u svoj svojoj puno}i, potpunosti i beskona~nosti.
Vilijam Blejk je ro|en 1757. u Londonu1, kao tre}e od petoro dece jednog engleskog trgovca. Kao dete je upoznao siroma{tvo, koje }e ga pratiti skoro celog `ivota.
Njegove umetni~ke sklonosti dolaze do izra`aja jo{ u najranijem detinjstvu, a istovremeno, ako ne i pre njih, prva vizionarska iskustva. Po~eo je da pi{e poeziju sa 12 godina, a njegovo prvo objavljeno delo su Poetical Sketches 2 - Pesni~ke skice (1783). Iako je najve}im delom bio samouk i nije stekao tradicionalno umetni~ko obrazovanje, ve} sa 14 godina odlazi u radionicu grafi~ara James Basir-a, gde provodi sedam godina.
Po{to je usavr{io svoje crta~ko znanje i graverski zanat3, jedno kratko vreme }e provesti na engleskoj Kraljevskoj akademiji4, ali }e se ubrzo odmetnuti kao pobunjenik protiv njenih krutih doktrina i tada{njeg upravnika Sir Joshua Reynolds-a. Kakvo je vi|enje i mi{ljenje o Akademiji i Reynolds-u imao, najbolje pokazuju njegovi stihovi:
“You say their pictures well painted be,
And yet they are blockheads you all agree:Thank God! I never was sent to school
To be flogg’d into following the style of a fool.
The errors of a wise man make your rule,
Rather than perfections of a fool.”
“Can there be anything more mean,
More malice in disguise,
Than praise a man for doing what
That man does most despise?
Reynolds lectures exactly so
When he praises Michel Angelo.”5
Uprkos tome, na Akademiji }e ste}i dvojicu zna~ajnih prijatelja, umetnika, za koje se mo`e re}i da su izvr{ili izvestan uticaj na njegovo likovno stvarala{tvo.
Re~ je o Henry Fuseli-u i John Flaxman-u.
Veoma ~esto se Blejkovo i Fuslijevo stvarala{tvo posmatraju pod istim svetlom, pa se ~ak smatra da se Blejkov stil oformio apsolutno pod Fuseli-jevim uticajem. To se ne mo`e smatrati ta~nim. Njih dvojica su se me|usobno izuzetno po{tovali, ali su nijhovi ideali i okolnosti u kojima su stvarali bili potpuno razli~iti. Fuseli je bio umetni~ki i politi~ki radikal i buntovnik, koji se ipak na kraju pomirio sa zvani~nicima, pa ~ak prihvatio naimenovanje za profesora slikarstva na Akademiji.
Nasuprot njemu Blejk ostaje veran svojoj unutra{njoj vodilji – imaginaciji. Ostaje ve~ni pobunjenik, sa `eljom da stvori umetnost koja prenosi poruku. Tako }e do kraja `iveti u siroma{tvu i izolaciji, sa jedinim ciljem - da sa~uva autenti~nost sopstvenih vizija.
“The only man that e’er I knew
Who did not make me almost spew
Was Fuseli: he was both Turk and Jew-
And so, dear Christian friends, how do you do?” 6
Druga za Blejka zna~ajna osoba sa Akademije, bio je John Flaxman, koji mu je pomogao da otvori sopstvenu grafi~ku radionicu - {tampariju 1784. godine, koja }e se, na`alost, vrlo brzo propasti. Uprkos tome Blejk }e najve}i deo svoje karijere i `ivota raditi kao grafi~ar i ilustrator.
U ovom najranijem periodu, Blejk jo{ uvek `eli da se bavi “istorijskim slikarstvom”. Kada je i poku{ao da stvara po ukusu svojih savremenika, njegove religiozne i istorijske kompozicije nakon izlaganja7 nisu bile prihva}ene. Ova dela karakteri{e izra`ena linearnost, tipi~na za Blejkov likovni izraz, {to je bilo i suvi{e ekscentri~no u doba kada je klasi~na forma bila normativ. Ubrzo shvata da nije, niti }e ikada biti spreman na kompromise, stoga se okre}e isklju~ivo svojoj imaginaciji i duhovnom svetu, koje nikada ne}e napustiti. Tada po~inje da stvara svoja najve}a dela kako poezije tako i likovne umetnosti.
Osim Poetical Sketches, Blejk je sva svoja dela samostalno ukra{avao i {tampao. Otkrio je sopstveni grafi~ki postupak8, kojim je kombinovao tekst sa slikama. Na taj na~in je dobijao samo mali broj primeraka, koji su zatim ru~no bojeni, naj~e{}e vodenim bojama. Svaka {tamparska ispravka bila je skoro nemogu}a. Njegova supruga, Catherine Boucher, pored toga {to mu je bila velika `ivotna podr{ka i inspiracija, pomagala mu je u {tamparskom radu. Ostala je uz njega do kraja `ivota, i bila je njegova jedina prava ljubav.
Krajem osamdesetih godina XIX veka Blejkova umetnost }e do`iveti izuzetnu transformaciju.
Songs of Innocence – Pesme nevinosti (1789) su njegovo najpoznatije rano delo. Ove kratke lirske pesme, samo su naizgled jednostavne. One slave i veli~aju bo`ansko prisustvo u svemu {to postoji. Za Blejka, nevinost je ozna~avala neophodni preduslov, za dosezanje onih realnosti, koje su izvan dometa ljudskog poimanja. To je iskonsko stanje apsolutne ~istote.
Ve} ovde je u potpunosti razvio komplikovan “dijalog” izme|u teksta i ilustracija, koji su se neprekidno pro`imali na stranama njegovih knjiga.
Songs of Experience —Pesme iskustva (1794) nastaju kao njihova suprotnost i pandan, ~ine}i sa njima celinu. Ovde poku{ava da otkrije za{to u bo`anskom svetu mora da bude predstavljeno toliko zla. Odgovor je veoma slo`en i dalje }e ga razvijati u svojim kasnijim proro~kim spevovima. Svaka pesma nevinosti ima svoj pandan u pesmama iskustva. Blejkov poetski jezik je prodoran i jasan, kao i njegov likovni jezik, u kome dominira ekspresivna linija, koja ve} ovde dose`e svoje najvi{e domete. Ilustracije su veselih boja i najve}im delom ispunjene `ivahnim i razigranim formama. Uprkos lepoti, ova dela su se veoma slabo prodavala. Jo{ manje uspeha je imao sa svojim slo`enim i komplikovanim mitolo{kim radovima.
“Book of Thel” – Knjiga o Teli (1789) je jo{ jedno njegovo rano delo. Njime tako|e dominira sli~no lirsko, ne`no raspolo`enje.
K. Clark smatra da ilustracije koje krase ovu poemu mogu se smatrati najveli~anstvenijim, ali ne i najsna`nijim, koje je Blejk ikada stvorio. One kao i stihovi predstavljaju himnu `enskog principa stvaranja, i otkrivaju ne`nu i radosnu prirodu.9
Tada je Blejk bio u svojim tridesetim godinama, kada je verovatno bio najsre}niji i najdopadljiviji. Ovakva nota njegovog unutra{njeg stanja prene}e se ~ak i na njegovo prozno delo ”The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” – Ven~anje neba i pakla (1790), ~ije ilustracije izgledaju kao bukte}i izlivi energije, ba{ kao i Blejkov jezik, u kome se ose}a da u`iva, dok drsko i smelo izokre}e drevne vrednosti.
Veoma raznovrsne ideje i razli~iti ljudi su uticali na Blejka. Me|u njima je ve} pomenuta supruga Catherine, ali za ovo delo posebno zna~ajan, kao i uop{te u uobli~avanju celokupne Blejkove ideologije i opusa, bio je Emanuel Svedenborg. 10Za Blejka je on bio “najve}i od svih ljudi”, ali je ipak odoleo svemo}nom uticaj njegovog u~enja i ostao dosledan samom sebi.
U po~etku se dosta identifikovao sa Svedenborgom, {to se lako mo`e pratiti u uvodu ”Ven~anja Neba i Pakla”
“As a new heaven is begun, and it is now thirty-three years since its advent, the Eternal Hell revives. And Lo! Swedenborg is the Angel sitting at the tomb: his writings are the linen clothes folded up.” 11
da bi kasnije njegove ideje i shvatanja zamenio sopstvenim. Kao {to je jednom prilikom zapisao:
“I must Create a System or be enslav'd by another man's
I will not Reason and Compare: my bussiness is to Create”.
^ini se da je Svedenborgovo u~enje poslu`ilo samo kao odsko~na daska njegovoj narastaju}oj bukte}oj viziji. Blejk pored Svedenborgovog intelektualnog spasenja uvodi i ideju spasenje pomo}u umetnosti. Po njemu je i sam Hrist bio umetnik, jer je govorio u parabolama. [to vi{e prou~ava “svedenborgijanizam”, uo~ava i njegove propuste i ograni~enja.
“Thus Swedenborg boasts that he writes is new; tho’ it is only the Contents or Index of already publish’d books. Now hear a plain fact: Swedenborg has not written one new truth. Now hear another: he has written all the old falsehoods. Thus Swedenborg’s writings are recapitulation of all superficial opinions, and analysis of the more sublime-but no further.”12
Blejk je i sam dosta razmi{ljao o religiji, njenoj ulozi u dru{tvu i u `ivotu pojedinca. To se najvi{e ogleda u prvim delima koja je sam {tampao 1788. godine "There is no Natural Religion" – Nema prirodne religije i "All Religions are One” – Sve religije su jedno.
Spevom The French Revolution – Francuska Revolucija (1791) nudi jedinstven uvid u doba u kome je `iveo.13 Pozdravlja revoluciju, i osu|uje svako socijalno i politi~ko ugnjetavanje. Svoj stav o uzaludnosti politike izrazio je u vi{e pasusa svojih stihova i proze:
„Kad bi ljudi bili mudri ni proizvoljni vladari im ne bi mogli nauditi. Ako nisu mudri najslobodnija vlada je prisiljena da bude tiranija.“
Visions of Daughters of Albion – Vizije k}eri Albiona (1793), America: A Prophecy – Amerika: Proro~anstvo (1793), Europe: A Prophecy - Evropa: Proro~anstvo (1794) i kasni Jerusalem (1820) su tako|e proro~ki spevovi.
Nekolicina savremenika, koja je i poku{la da ih ~ita, smatrala ih je dokazom njegovog poreme}enog uma.
^esto je razmatrano pitanje o Blejkovom navodnom ludilu, bilo na ra~un njegovih fascinantnih vizija, nekonvencionalnog pona{anja i na~ina `ivota ili njegovih proro~kih sposobnosti, ~iju vrednost i zna~aj njegovi savremenici nisu bili sposobni da uvide. Ipak je o~igledno da Blejkovim univerzumom vlada jedan svemo}an razum. Taj razum nije mehani~ki, ve} razum mistika, koji je nepoznat i neshvatljiv ~oveku svakodnevnice.
Bio je istinski mistik. Nije ga zavaravao privid ovog sveta. Percepcija mu je funkcionisala po principu dualizma. Svako ljudsko bi}e je posmatrao s dva aspekta, znaju}i da je onaj ljudski manje va`an, a isti~u}i zna~aj ve~nog aspekta, kojim se svako bi}e povezuje sa svojim stvaraocem.
Sa ~udima i vizijama se suo~io jo{ kao dete, ali su se ona nastavila tokom ~itavog njegovog `ivota. Video je drvo puno an|ela, proroka Jezekilja na livadi, a jednom se prestravio ugledav{i Boga, koji proviruje kroz njegov prozor. Veze sa natprirodnim, i drugim sferama Univerzuma postale su mu potpuno prirodne. Komunikacija i povezanost sa nevidljivim i nepojmljivim bi}ima i svetovima nastavile su se do kraja njegovog `ivota.
Razni nepoznati duhovi su mu diktirali proro~ke odlomke, koje je ponekad pisao i protiv svoje volje.14 Sve {to je pro`ivljavao i sa ~ime se susretao poku{avao je da saop{ti jednostavno. Na`alost njegovo delo je, upravo nasuprot njegovoj `elji, u velikoj meri nedoku~ivo, pa i danas, uprkos boljem poznavanju Blejkove li~ne filozofije, pojedini delovi Milton-a i Jerusalem-a ostaju neobja{njivi.
Blejk je stvorio sopstvenu mitologiju. Zadivljuje zamisao o dva sveta sadr`ana jedan u drugom, kao i o dvadeset sedam slojeva tame. Simbolika je op{te prisutna u njegovom stvarala{tvu. Kako sam ka`e: “Vizija ili imaginacija je predstava onoga {to postoji ve~no,
stvarno i nepromenjeno. Bajku ili alegoriju stvaraju k}eri se}anja. Imaginaciju okru`uju k}eri nadahnu}a...”
Kreirao je likove (modele li~nosti) kao {to su Urizen, Los i Albion, koji su me|usobno povezani, a ~ija priroda i odnosi odra`avaju njegova verovanja, nade i strahove. Pretpostavlja se da njihova imena mogu da otkriju zna~enja npr. Los je obrnuto od Sol (sunce, ili sam, ili izgubljen), Urizen (your reason), i sl. Ipak, oni ostaju prili~no nejasni i mra~ni, i ote`avaju razumevanje Blejkove umetnosti. Izvori ideja za nastanak ovih likova, ostaju u domenu tajanstvenog i skrivenog. Blejk je svakako bio upoznat s drevnim kulturama i umetno{}u, kao i hermeti~kim znanjima i knji`evno{}u. Potpuno je jasan uticaj koji je na njegovo stvarala{tvo ostavila srednjovekovna kultura i umetnost, kojom je bio potpuno op~injen. U ranoj mladosti prou~avao je gotiku, skiciraju}i njenu arhitekturu u Vestminsterskoj opatiji, a sami umetni~ki proces koji je koristio (iluminacija - ukra{avanje knjiga) vodi poreklo iz srednjovekovnih iluminatorskih skriptorija, koji se i ~ine bli`i njegovoj prirodi, nego doba i dru{tvo u kome je `iveo i stvarao.
Sa devedestim godinama XVIII veka dolazi do promena u duhu Blejkove umetnosti, {to se ose}a u ve} pomenutim proro~kim spevovima kao i u spevu “Urizen” .
“The book of Urizen” (1794) je najo~itiji rezultat Blejkovog stanja i njegovog novog stila. U liku Urizen-a je otelotvorio sve ono {to je prezirao: ograni~enja, definicije, mere i materijalizam. “Ako bi se u jedan izraz moglo sumirati sve ono {to je mrzeo bio bi to dijalekti~ki materijalizam.”15
Umesto varljive jasno}e dotada{njeg Blejkovog izraza, sada njegovim delom dominira tama i konfuzija proro~kih knjiga. Promene su drasti~nije u njegovom poetskom re~niku nego u grafi~kom delu. U svemu je op{te prisutna mu~nina, kao da iz svega odjekuju jecaji i vrisci.
Kao rezultat svega toga i Blejkov likovni izraz je pretrpeo izvesne promene. Ilustracije vi{e ne uokviruju tekst, ve} se name}u u samostalnim okvirima, ponekad zauzimaju}i i ~itave stranice.
U ovom periodu, u sli~nom duhu, izveo je i izvanredno neobi~ne serije velikih monotipija, koje prikazuju razli~ite vidove ljudske degradacije.
“Newton i Nebuchadnezzar - Njutn i Nabukodonosor su primeri ovih serija, i verovatno zami{ljene kao par, ukazuju}i na stra{ne posledice Urizen-ove vladavine. U liku Njutna je otelotvorio razornu mo} mehani~kog razuma koji sve premerava, dok je u Nabukodonosoru prikazao najni`i nivo, prikazuju}i materijalnog ~oveka vra}enog na nivo zveri. Za Blejka je ova figura naja~i primer degradacije.
Hecate 16 - Hekata (oko 1795) predstavlja veoma kompleksno delo, u kome su sumirani motivi gr~ke mitologije, nekoliko Sheakespear-ovih komada i njegove poezije. Prikazane su tri figure koje aludiraju na trojstvo koje oli~ava ova gr~ka boginja, kombinuju}i
aspekte Meseca, Zemlje i podzemnog sveta sa mo}ima Neba i Mora. Njen lik se dovodi u vezu sa ve{ti~ijim kultom, magijom i nadprirodnim, {to Blejk upravo ovde i nagla{ava. Prikazano je njeno mra~no cartvo, sa tajanstvenim i prete}im bi}ima. Okru`ena je sovom, slepim mi{em i zmijom, koji su neophodni sastojci njenih mo}nih magijskih napitaka. ^ak i magarac mo`e se posmatra kao aluzija njene mra~ne i kobne prirode. Ona je apsolutni dokaz Blejkovog poznavanja raznolikih bogatih okultnih znanja pored hri{}anske istorije i verovanja.
Pity – Milosr|e (oko 1795) se ~esto dovodi u vezu sa Hekatom, kao njen pandan. Milton Klonsky ovu povezanost obja{njava time da su ova dva motiva zami{ljena da predstave dualizam onoga {to je Blejk smatrao dominiraju}om @enskom Voljom, koja poku{ava da uhvati mu{karca u svoju zamku-mre`u religije satkanu od seksualne represije, ~ednosti i ljubomore.17 Blejk ovom slo`enom dvostrukom metaforom ujedinjuje dve {ekspirovske verzije Milosr|a, iz Macbeth-a.
The Ancient of Days – Starac dana (1827) je kasno delo, koje se ipak mo`e uvrstiti u ovu grupu. Ova figura predstavlja mo}nog stvaraoca, koji ustvari predstavlja lik Urizen-a. O~igledno su mu poznati srednjovekovni primeri predstava Boga kao velikog arhitekte - stvaraoca. Blejk ovde kombinuje srednjovekovni simbol sa sna`nim maniristi~kim formama (Mikelan|ela i Tibaldija). Ovo je sada Urizen kao trijumfator koji stoji nasuprot onog koji se davi u vodama materijalizma.18 Blejk se okrenuo religiji koju otkriva Biblija, ali bez njenih strogo utvr|enih mehanizama koji bi sputavali ljudsku energiju. Smatra da je ~ovekov `ivot uzvi{en, i da se mora stalno razvijati i uzdizati.
Najve}i deo svoje karijere radio za nekolicinu privatnih patrona. Me|u njima je njegov kolega sa Akademije, John Flaxman, zatim pesnik William Hayley 19, za koga je radio tri godine u Felpham-u. Ovaj trogodi{nji boravak van Londona, je bio i period kada su ga vizije “privremeno napustile”. Vi{e nisu dolazile neo~ekivano, pa je inspiraciju morao da crpi iz svojih se}anja. No ubrzo }e se oporaviti i nastaviti da stvara jo{ neka od svojih remek-dela. Bolje se slagao sa skromnijim patronima, kakav je bio Thomas Butts, koji mu je poru~io da izradi veliki broj predstava iz Miltonove poezije i Biblije. Njega su ipak, kao i ve}inu patrona, vi{e zanimala dobro poznata dela, nego Blejkove mitologije, {to je umetnik mirno prihvatio, jer je imao sposobnost da svako delo vidi u svom svetlu i da mu podari svoj li~ni pe~at.20
Spevovi Jerusalem, veli~anstven ep o ratu, miru i slobodi, i Milton (o umrlom pesniku koji mu se javlja u vidu komete, ulaze}i u njega kroz stopalo, da bi mu se kao druga vizija ukazala dvanaestogodi{nja devoj~ica koju je pome{ao s jednom od svojih muza. Ona je u stvari tra`ila John Milton-a), nastaju kao produkt ponovnih autenti~nih vizija.
Serija grafika za The Book of Job – Knjiga o Jovu bila je porud`bina mladog umetnika John Linnell-a. Do`ivela veliki uspeh, pa ~ak i zaradu, {to nije bilo uobi~ajeno, jer je Blejk najve}i deo svog `ivota proveo u siroma{tvu.
Ovim delom, kao i ilustracijom Jerusalem-a, daje likovni izraz potrebi za novom religijom ili za novim tuma~enjem hri{}anstva, ukazav{i na veru kao viziju, a ne puko pokoravanje moralisti~kim i crkvenim pravilima.
Ilustracije Danteove Divine Comedy - Bo`anske komedije su poslednje Blejkovo veliko delo, tako|e izvedeno kao porud`bina za Linnell-a. Dante je bio veoma cenjen tokom ranog XIX veka, jer je njegova imaginativna mo} izuzetno odgovarala zahtevima romanti~ara. Blejk je bio savr{en kandidat za ukra{avanje ovakvog dela. Imao je izuzetnu pronicljivu mo}, kao i izrazito li~ni stil. Kriti~ki je pristupio tuma~enju Dantea, jer je njegovu religioznost smatrao suvi{e rigoroznom i tradicionalnom. 21 Izuzetan je njegov prikaz pakla u kome su Paolo i Francesca:
The whirlwind of lovers – Vrtlog ljubavnika jer on njihovu preljubu posmatra kao izraz slobodne ljubavi, i prikazuje ih u vidu dinami~ne spirale koja se uzdi`e. Smatrao je da `ivot nalazi savr{en izraz u ljubavi, stoga ona mora bit apsolutno slobodna.
Ovi primeri su sasvim dovoljni za sticanje potpuno jasnog utiska o Blejkovom likovnom jeziku, koji je podjednako sna`an i prodoran kao i njegove re~i. Osnovno izra`ajno sredstvo kojim se slu`i je mo}na linija, koja svemu daje karakter. Sve {to prikazuje je odre|eno sna`nim i o{trim obrisima, gotovo bez senki. Jer mistik ne voli zasen~enost, on sve vidi u svom izvornom, pro~i{}enom stanju. Senke i vi|enje mistika su nespojivi. Njegova dela ne nastaju po prirodi. Njemu priroda nije bila merilo. Ona je samo jedna verzija onoga {to nas okru`uje u ovom beskrajnom Univerzumu. Zato Blejk ne koristi svoje o~i kada stvara, ve} svoju inspiraciju, um i vizionarska iskustva.
Sva njegova dela su prepuna uskovitlane, nesputane energije, kao da su usred besne}e oluje. ^esto prikazuju u`as, o~ajanje ili neobuzdanu radost, ali gotovo nikada mirne i spokojne scene. Njegove figure su zaista idealni likovi, predstavljeni kao sna`ne i muskulaturne, {to jo{ ja~e isti~e napetu atmosferu.
Njegova dela podse}aju na Sala dei Giganti Giulia Romana, koja ostavlja utisak arhitekturalne ko{nice sa sna`nim telima divova i otvorenog neba s koga se svi istovremeno obru{avaju na nespremnog posmatra~a. Tako se i ona svim svojim adutima obru{avaju na onoga ko se sretne sa njima. Ovo pore|enje sa grandioznom maniristi~kom zidnom dekoracijom jedne prostorije, najbolje mo`e ista}i monumentalnost njegovih predstava, koje su pre svega krasile knjige, {to zna~i da su veoma malih dimenzija.
Upravo izbor likovnog izra`avanja - ukra{avanje knjiga, kako sopstvenih tako i dela drugih knji`evnika, Blejka ponovo dovode u vezu sa srednjovekovnom tradicijom rukopisne iluminacije. Na to ukazuje i besprekorna upotreba linearnih efekata, koji ~esto reflektuju uticaje izuvijane goti~ke forme, kojoj se Blejk posebno divio jer je izuzetno doprinosila utisku spiritualnosti, kome je te`io.
Do kraja je ostao potpuno dosledan sebi i svojim, za ostatak sveta, radikalnim shvatanjima. Pod stare dane susre}e se sa grupom mladih umetnika, koja slavi i ceni njegovu umetnost. Me|u prvima koji }e biti pod njegovim sna`nim i direktnim uticajem
bio je Samuel Palmer, za kojim }e uslediti Pre-Rafaeliti, koji su uvideli veli~inu njegovog stvarala{tva.
Umetni~ko delo Vilijama Blejka je ostalo neshva}eno i neprihva}eno u doba kada je `iveo, stvarao i hodao ovim svetom koji svi poznajemo. ^ak i danas, kada mu je posve}ena zaslu`ena pa`nja nije u potpunosti doku~ivo. Verovatno }e takvo zauvek i ostati, upravo zato {to je poku{avao da prika`e neke druge, vi{e sfere. Tajne koje je spoznao mo}ima svog genija i vizionarskog duha, nikada ne}e biti potpuno dostupne obi~nom ~oveku, bilo da je re~ o laiku ili nau~niku.
Jednom prilikom je napisao:
“Bilo bi mi `ao da imam ovozemaljsku slavu, jer sva materijalna slava koju ~ovek stekne utoliko vi{e umanjuje njegovu duhovnu slavu. Ja ne `elim ni{ta. Veoma sam sre}an!”
1 U londonu je proveo skoro ceo svoj `ivot, osim 1800-1803. kada je `iveo i radio u priobalnom engleskom gradu Felpham-u, pod patronatom Williama Hayley-a.
2 “Poetical Sketches” (1783), kao zbirka njegovih mladala~kih stihova.
3 Grafika }e biti ustvari glavni nosilac Blejkovog likovnog izraza. Njegova poezija je najve}im delom neodvojiva od likovnog stvarala{tva, tako su grafi~ki postupci otiskivanja pomogli oboga}ivanju i ukra{avanju njegovih poetskih dela, koja je sam {tampao i izdavao.
4 Royal Academy je osnovana 1768. i postala je najzna~ajniji i najuticajniji faktor na tada{nje umetni~ko stvarala{tvo Engleske. Pored toga {to je promovisala umetnost kao intelektualnu i uzvi{enu delatnost, ~esto nije podr`avala najinventivnija i najoriginalnija dela koja su tada nastajala, kakvo je upravo bilo Blejkovo stvarala{tvo.
5 On art and artists:On the foundation of the Royal Academy; On Sir Joshua Reynolds
6 On friends and foes: On Fuseli
7 Organizovao je sopstvenu izlo`bu, koja na `alost nije nai{la na razumevanje, jer njegovo doba definitivno nije bilo spremno za novine koje je njegovo delo donelo.
8 Ovaj postupak je smatrao boljim od bilo kog drugog, a otkrio mu ga je u jednom privi|enju njegov pokojni brat.
9 Kenneth Clark's The Romantic Rebellion: Romantic versus Classic Art (1973).
10 E. Swedenborg je {vedski nau~nik, filozof, vizionar i mistik XVIII veka. @iveo je u Londonu, pa je njegovo u~enje moglo biti veoma blisko Blejku. Stvorio je sopstveni sistem, novu religiju, koja govori o intelektualnom spasenju pomo}u istinskih dela.
Nakon jednog otkrivenje, on po~inje da ima redovne vizije-putovanja po rajevima i paklovima. Po njemu je Bog ~oveku dozvolio slobodu mi{ljenja i posle smrti, tako da nikoga ne nagra|uje niti ka`njava, svako prema sopstvenim predispozicijama bira pakao ili raj, i da li }e postati an|eo ili demon, jer i an|eli i demoni su nekada bili ljudi. Po njemu mora da postoji ravnote`a izme|u paklenih i an|eoskih sila da bi svet opstao.
11 Marriage of Heaven and Hell
12 vidi prethodnu fusnotu
13 I druga njegova proro~ka dela daju uvid u doba u kome je `iveo kao i neka koja }e uslediti.
14 Smatra se da je upravo tako nastao spev “Jerusalem” (1820)
15 vidi fusnotu 9
16 Slika je ranije bila poznata pod ovim nazivom,danas je u Tejt galeriji poznata kao “The Night of Enitharmon's Joy”
17 'O Woman-born / And Woman-nourish'd & Woman-educated & Woman-scorn'd!' pisao je u spevu Jerusalem.
18 vidi fusnotu 9
19 Jedini period (1800-1803) koji je proveo van Londona jesu, dok je radio za ovog pesnika. Uprkos dobro namerI patrona`i, Blejk je ~esto bio nezadovoljan jer je dobijao mnogo trivijalnih porud`bina , a nije `eleo da tra}i svoj talenat na izradu serije portreta.
20 Ovakav stav zauzima William Vaughan, British painting: The golden age, 1999. za razliku od Kenneth Clark's The Romantic Rebellion: Romantic versus Classic Art, 1973, koji smatra da je Blejk svoj maksimalni likovni doprinos davao pre svega sopstvenim delima, dok je ne{to slabije ukra{avao dela drugih.
21 Pogotovo u opisima pakla, ~istili{ta i raja.
2.William Blake is probably most famous for the opening verse of his “Auguries of Innocence”: “To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour.” The verse formed one of the centrepieces of the Tombraider movie about Lara Croft at the height of her fame; it was probably an hour even Blake would not have been able to prophesize. The verse was Blake’s rephrasing of “as above, so below”, expressing Blake’s adherence to the notion of correspondences. He shared with the Hermetics that if one could really
see, everything was double, micro- and macro-cosmic. To this, he added, that “without contraries there is no progression”. Ackroyd begins his biography of Blake by stating that “in the visionary imagination of William Blake there is no birth and no death, no beginning and no end, only the perpetual pilgrimage within time towards eternity.” The future, as the opening verse might suggest, was Blake’s obsession – but so was the past, as the future would restore the glories of the past. Blake not so much romanticised, but “mythicised” the past, especially Celtic-megalithic Britain and the Druids, a past that he had labelled “Albion” and which was largely seen as a Garden of Eden – but British in nature.
Blake had not arrived at this framework by reading, even though he was influenced by those who had written about Atlantis; primarily, Blake had experienced. Since childhood, Blake had visions, which, unlike most people, stayed with him throughout life – if not grew in their intensity. He believed that this gift was innate with all, but he had merely retained it beyond childhood. His first important vision apparently happened when he was eight or ten, around 1766-1768, at Peckham Rye, near Dulwich Hill, and it was a tree filled with angels. When his father tried to thrash William for talking about this, the mother intervened; and it was she rather than the father who whipped him, when he told his parents about an encounter with Ezekiel.
Blake is remembered as a poet and painter, but in his time, he was not considered to be an artist. When he became apprenticed in 1772, his master engraver was James Basire, who lived on No. 31 Great Queen Street, opposite the Masonic Grand Lodge. Quite a few of Blake’s friends would enter Freemasonry, though there is no record that Blake ever joined. Blake’s biographer Peter Ackroyd states that Blake never joined any organisation, but according to the lists of grandmasters of the Druid Order, Blake was a grandmaster from 1799 till 1827. Of course, such lists are often grand claims with little substantiation. Still, when he lived at No. 28 Poland Street, between 1785 and 1790, the “The Ancient Order of the Druids” convened merely a few yards down from Blake’s house, in an ale-house apparently established by the Order itself. Too close for comfort? But perhaps even if Blake wasn’t, he should have been, for he was greatly interested in the Druids and must be seen as one of the great contributors to reintroducing the Celtic-megalithic dimension into British culture. Blake spoke of Albion, England’s great, mythological past, ruled by Druids. To quote Peter Ackroyd: “All his life, Blake was entranced and persuaded by the idea of a deeply spiritual past, and he continually alluded to the possibility of ancient lore and arcane myths that could be employed to reveal previously hidden truths.” Already at that time, the Welsh bards met on Primrose Hill and it was a site for which Blake had great affinity, mentioning it in some of his poems. Blake had read Stukeley’s Abury on the supposed Druid temples of Avebury and Stonehenge. Blake, together with many like-minded people, would transform the history of Britain and direct it into the Celtic direction, away from its Roman foundations and focus. Blake believed that “The Egyptian Hieroglyphs, the Greek and the Roman Mythology, and the Modern Freemasonry being the last remnants of it. The honourable Emanuel Swedenborg is the wonderful Restorer of this long lost Secret.”
At one point, Blake also created an alchemically-themed tarot deck. When he learned that it was to be used by Varley and Hockley as a “key” for the Diogenes’ occult operations, Blake, realizing that the Diogenes represented the “chartered” forces of the establishment, got Samuel Palmer to disperse the cards. Hence, there may be truth to the statement that Blake never joined any organisation, as perhaps he was a serial non-joiner of organisation, preferring to be an individual.
Blake lived at the time of the French and American Revolutions and was a great fan of both; he knew Thomas Paine. Blake wore a red liberty cap in solidarity with the French revolutionaries, but despaired with the rise of Robespierre and the Reign of Terror in the French revolution. He lived at a time when towns were society was entering the Industrial Age, with factories appearing in the landscape. He felt the landscape became a vision of hell and Mankind the subject of a new form of self-imposed slavery. But above all, he also understand that in these times of change, with Revolutions in America and France, Britain needed to have a new vision of the future and the past, and it is here that Blake’s role in history is perhaps at its most important.
Blake was a Londoner and it was London, not some romantic place near a river in the countryside, that was the site of his visions. In his visions, he saw a different London than all those other people that ran through its streets. Blake saw London as a heavenly city; he saw angels, souls, prophets. Hence, to him, London was a “Heavenly London”, a “Jerusalem”, one of his best known poems. In 1916, at the height of the Great War, C. Hubert H. Parry would set it into music, to become known as the hymn “Jerusalem”, a key ingredient in every Last Night of the Proms and to some, almost like a second national anthem, often used as such for sporting occasions. Indeed, upon hearing the orchestral version for the first time, King George V said that he preferred it over the national anthem.The poem itself was inspired by an apocryphal story that Jesus accompanied Joseph of Arimathea to the English town of Glastonbury. Mixed with legends of Troy, it created a powerful mythology that inspired Britain to see itself as holding a special role in the destiny of the world; as such, he gave a new vision to an old nation.
For Blake, England may have been Jerusalem, but, specifically, for Blake, time did not exist and he therefore looked to the distant past and the distant future, to see a London of utter bliss, the “Heavenly Jerusalem” spoken off in the Bible. He seemed to have a particular affinity for the London Stone, London’s foundation stone, where he had quite a few visions of this “Jerusalem”. On Primrose Hill, a site cherished by the early modern Druids, he had a vision of the “Spiritual Sun”, which he compared to the true light, the light of the Imagination. Blake is therefore frequently seen as a mystic, but this is not totally accurate. He deliberately wrote in the style of the Hebrew prophets and apocalyptic writers and envisioned his works as expressions of prophecy, following in the footsteps of Elijah and Milton. To be absolutely precise, he believed himself to be the living embodiment of the spirit of Milton. Blake’s Jerusalem was written as a preface to Milton. Here, John Milton, returns from heaven and encourages Blake to develop his relationship with dead writers. The poem is apocalyptic in its setting and deals with the union of the dead and the living.
It is here that we begin to see the real Blake – or try to find out who the real Blake was. It is known that Blake felt that most of his art – whether poems or paintings – were merely representations of what he saw or knew in that other world. For example, Blake is credited with inventing a specific type of printing, but according to Blake, it was his brother Robert, following his death, who came to Blake in the night and explained to him the method of illuminated printing that he was to make his own. Most of Blake's paintings (such as "The Ancient of Days") are actually prints made from copper plates, which he etched in this method. He and his wife coloured these prints with water colours. Thus each print is itself a unique work of art.As to his poems, some have seen these as automatic writing, dictated by beings from the otherworld, and written down by Blake, the scribe. Biographer Mark Schorer even states that Blake “went as far in the direction of the automatic as it is possible to go and remain poetry”. The central question, of course, is whether it was real – or imagined… though for Blake the latter was real too. Hence, perhaps we should ask whether it was real or a hallucination, a mental aberration. Some, in his own time, have said that he suffered from hallucinations, others that he was just mad. William Wordsworth wrote: "There was no doubt that this poor man was mad, but there is something in the madness of this man which interests me more than the sanity of Lord Byron and Walter Scott."
None of the scenes in Blake’s art show landscapes as we know it. All his backgrounds are “eternal”, like darkness, or stars. Blake the painter does not do shepherds in a landscape or baby Jesus. Instead, he tackles subjects such as “the ghost of a flea”, or a portrait of Newton. “Ghost of a Flea” was the result of his vision of a flea and its statement that human souls sometimes resided in fleas, as a punishment for past lives. One friend was there when Blake had a second vision of the flea, at which point he would sketch him in more detail: “here he is – reach me my things – I shall keep my eye on him. There he comes! His eager tongue whisking out of his mouth, a cup in his hands to hold blood and covered with scaly skin of gold and green.” Again, for Blake, seeing such ghosts was not at all upsetting; it was but one in a series of supernatural visitors, including, apparently Satan – the true devil – “all else are apocryphal”. Late in life, Crabb Robinson had a conversation with Blake, in which he asked: “You use the same word as Socrates used. What resemblance do you suppose is there between your spirit and the spirit of Socrates?” Blake answered: “The same as between our countenances. I was Socrates… a sort of brother. I must have had conversations with him. So I had with Jesus Christ. I have an obscure recollection of having been with both of them.” Indeed, it was Blake himself who said "I can look at the knot in a piece of wood until it frightens me.”
Despite using Christian imagery repeatedly, Blake was a mystical prophet, not a biblical prophet. He saw the Bible as a very long poem. For Blake, a more genuine bible were the writings of Emmanuel Swedenborg. Blake’s friends nevertheless said he did not see himself as his disciple, but more like a fellow visionary.
But Blake had to – and did – use Christian imagery. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is one of his books, a series of texts written in imitation of biblical books of prophecy, but expressing Blake's own intensely personal Romantic and revolutionary beliefs. The book describes the poet's visit to Hell, a device adopted by Blake from Dante's Inferno and Milton's Paradise Lost. As several others of his works, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell revealed the mysticism of Swedenborg.
Newton is probably his most famous painting, in which the physicist is cast in the role of the Great Architect of the Universe – revealing a strong influence of Freemasonry. Foreshadowing Dali, who would claim to be the first painter of the world of quantum physics, Blake seems to have been the first painter of the world of physics. But his mind was definitely quantum physical, if not even more modern. He is centuries ahead of Rupert Sheldrake when Blake writes that “Matter, as wise logicians say, cannot without a form subsist, and form, say I, as well as they, must fail if matter brings no grist.” Did he reject Newton and the scientific approach? In life, Blake did not object to reason, but did not submit to its authority, seeing it merely as the agent of a partial truth. Indeed, speaking on consciousness – which he labelled Imagination – he stated that it was not subject to matter, echoed in one of his other famous sayings "If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite.”
So what would death be like for a man who felt death did not exist? At six o’clock in the evening on August 12, 1827, after promising his wife that he would be with her always, Blake died. Gilchrist reports that a female lodger in the same house, present at his expiration, said, "I have been at the death, not of a man, but of a blessed angel." George Richmond gives the following account of Blake's death in a letter to Samuel Palmer: “He died ... in a most glorious manner. He said He was going to that Country he had all His life wished to see & expressed Himself Happy.”After his death, his wife Catherine continued selling his works. In fact, his first book, Poetical Sketches (1783) was the only one published conventionally during his life. She said that her husband would appear daily to her, sit for some hours with her and advice her on how to run the business. It was no different than Blake’s relationship had been with his dead brother, whom, Blake stated, appeared to him often for a period of many years after his death. Hence, it seems, Blake was true to himself when he stated that "The imagination is not a State: it is the Human existence itself." Blake considered memory to be an aspect of time, and hence what Christianity labelled the “Fallen World”. For him, “Salvation” were imaginary states, where he could transcend time, to look upon “our ancient days before this Earth appeared in its vegetated mortality to my mortal vegetated Eyes.”
Despite having known the leading lights of his time, Blake’s fame would be post-mortem. Still, in life, he had said that “I should be sorry if I had an earthly fame for whatever natural glory a man has is so much detracted from his spiritual glory. I wish to do nothing for profit. I wish to live for art. I want nothing whatever. I am quite happy.” In life, Blake claimed that Milton had appeared to him several times. Others have stated that he had gone as far as to think that he was a reincarnation of Milton. Either way, his poem Milton is often seen as his achievement of the state of mystical union, his “spiritual
glory”, with the remainder of his work, Jerusalem, the illustrations for the Book of Job and Dante, as the retention of it. But just like Mozart left his Requiem unfinished, so did Blake die before completing his illustrations of Dante’s Inferno – the voyage into death. The commission for Dante's Inferno came to Blake in 1826, but his death in 1827 meant that only a handful of the watercolours were completed.
For Blake, it would not have mattered. He had, it seems, achieved his personal ambition in life and completed his spiritual quest. What had he learned? “These states exist now. Man passes on, but states remain for ever; he passes through them like a traveller who may as well suppose that the places he has passed through exist no more, as a Man may suppose that the states he has passed through exist no more. Everything is eternal.” He added: “This world of imagination is the world of eternity… There exist in that eternal world the permanent realities of everything which we see reflected in this vegetable glass of nature.” Hence, Milton had died, but he still existed; so did Jesus; so did – would – Blake. As above, so below. As before, so after. As in life, so in death. There was only Eternity, in a grain of sand, a knot, or a flower, his paintings, or poems, or in Blake himself.
3. Information on the artist
William Blake (November 28, 1757 - August 12, 1827) was an English poet, painter and printmaker.He was born at London into a middle-class family. He was from earliest youth a seer of visions and a dreamer of dreams, seeing "Ezekiel sitting under a green bough", and "a tree full of angels at Peckham", and such he remained to the end of his days. His teeming imagination sought expression both in verse and in drawing. At ten years old, he began engraving copies of drawings of Greek antiquities, a practice that was then preferred to real-life drawing. Four years later he became apprenticed to an engraver, James Basire. After two years Basire sent him to copy art from the Gothic architecture churches in London. At the age of twenty-one Blake finished his apprenticeship and set up as a professional engraver.In 1779, he became a student at the Royal Academy, where he rebelled against what he regarded as the unfinished style of fashionable painters such as Rubens. He preferred the Classical exactness of Michelangelo and Raphael.In July, 1780, he was at the head of a rampaging mob that stormed Newgate Prison in London. The mob were wearing blue cockades (ribbons) on their caps, to symbolise solidarity with the insurrection in the American colonies. This disturbance, later known as the Gordon riots, provoked a flurry of paranoid legislation from the government of George III, as well as the creation of the first police force.Blake's first collection of poems "Poetical Sketches" was published circa 1783. After his fathers death, William and brother Robert opened a print shop in 1784 and began working with radical publisher Joseph Johnson. At Johnson's house he met some of the leading intellectual dissidents of the time in England, including Joseph Priestley,
scientist; Richard Price, philosopher; John Henry Fuseli, painter whom he became friends with; Mary Wollstonecraft, feminist; and Thomas Paine, American revolutionary. Along with William Wordsworth and William Godwin, Blake had great hopes for the American and French revolution and wore a red liberty cap in solidarity with the French revolutionaries, but despaired with the rise of Robespierre and the Reign of Terror in the French revolution.Mary Wollstonecraft became a close friend, and Blake illustrated her "Original Stories from Real Life". They shared similar views on sexual equality and the institution of marriage. In the "Visions of the Daughters of Albion" in 1793 Blake condemned the cruel absurdity of enforced chastity and marriage without love and defended the right of women to complete self-fulfillment.In 1788, at the age of thirty-one, Blake began to experiment with relief etching, which was the method used to produce most of his books of poems.Blake's marriage to Catherine remained a close and devoted one until his death. There were early problems, however, such as Catherine's illiteracy and the couple's failure to produce children. At one point, in accordance with the beliefs of the Swedenborgian Society, Blake suggested bringing in a concubine. Catherine was distressed at the idea, and he dropped it. Later in life, the pair seem to have settled down, and their apparent domestic harmony in middle age is better documented than their early difficulties.Later in his life Blake sold a great number of works, particularly his Bible illustrations, to Thomas Butts, a patron who saw Blake more as a friend in need than an artist. Geoffrey Keynes, a biographer, described Butts as 'a dumb admirer of genius, which he could see but not quite understand.' Dumb or not, we have him to thank for eliciting and preserving so many works.About 1800 Blake moved to a cottage at Felpham in Sussex (now West Sussex) to take up a job illustrating the works of William Hayley, a mediocre poet. It was in this cottage that Blake wrote Milton: a Poem (which was published later between 1804 and 1808). The preface to this book included the poem "And did those feet in ancient time", which Blake decided to discard for later editions. This is ironic, because as the words to the hymn "Jerusalem", this is now one of Blake's most well-known if not well-understood poems.Slavery was abhorred by Blake, who believed in racial and sexual equality, with several of his poems and paintings expressing a notion of universal humanity: "As all men are alike (tho' infinitely various)". He retained an active interest in social and political events for all his life, but was often forced to resorting to cloaking social idealism and political statements in protestant mystical allegory. His constant vision for humanity was rebuilding "Jerusalem" on earth, a uniting of the physical and spiritual sides of human nature, free of economic exploitation, with people able to develop the full potential of their being. Blake rejected all forms of imposed authority, indeed was charged with assault and uttering seditious and treasonable expressions against the King in 1803, but was cleared in the Chichester assizes of the charges.Blake returned to London in 1802 and began to write and illustrate "Jerusalem" (1804-1820). He was introduced by George Cumberland to a young artist named John Linnell. Through Linnell he met Samuel Palmer, who belonged to a group of artists who called themselves the Shoreham Ancients. This group shared Blake's rejection of modern trends and his belief in a spiritual and artistic New Age. Blake benefited from this group
technically, by sharing in their advances in watercolour painting, and personally, by finding a receptive audience for his ideas.At the age of sixty-five Blake began work on illustrations for the Book of Job. These works were later admired by John Ruskin, who compared Blake favourably to Rembrandt.William Blake died in 1827 and was buried in an unmarked grave at Bunhill Fields, London. In recent years, a proper memorial was erected for him and his wife.Blake is also recognized as a Saint in Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica.
