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Printing Instructions

William Blake

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		Nebuchadnezzar, 1795/ca.1805 William Blake (British, 1757–1827) Color print finished in pen and ink and watercolor on paper; 21 1/2 x 28 1/2 in. (54.5 x 72.5 cm), platemark 17 5/8 x 24 3/8 in. (44.6 x 62 cm) Tate; presented by W. Graham Robertson 1939 Description

Description

As told in the book of Daniel (4: 31–33), God punished King Nebuchadnezzar—who defiantly built the glorious city of Babylon—by taking away his reason. Driven to the fields to eat grass, the former king became bestial, sprouting feathers and claws. (When he finally recognized the superiority of God, his reason was restored.) Blake derived the pose of the figure from a Dürer print; he might have intended the subject as a veiled reference to the madness of his own king, George III of England.

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