- Title:
- 'The Sun beheld it – No, the shocking scene' (Page 75)
- Part Of:
- Date:
- 1797
- Materials & Techniques:
- Etching, line engraving, and letterpress, with hand coloring in watercolor on moderately thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper
- Dimensions:
- Spine: 17 1/2 inches (44.5 cm), Sheet: 16 3/4 x 12 3/4 inches (42.5 x 32.4 cm), Plate: 15 5/8 x 12 3/4 inches (39.7 x 32.4 cm)
- Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Lettered on facing page: "74 | 'Expended DEITY on human weal'. | Feel the great truths, which burst the tenfold night | Of heathen error with a golden flood | Of endless day: to feel is to be fired; | And to believe, LORENZO! is to feel. | Thou most indulgent, most tremendous power! | Still more tremendous for thy wondrous love! | That, arms with awe more aweful thy commands; | And foul transgression dips in sevenfold night: | How our hearts tremble at thy love immense! | In love immense, inviolably just! | THOU, rather than thy justice should be stain'd, | Didst stain the cross; and, work of wonders far | The greatest--that thy dearest far might bleed! | Bold thought! shall I dare speak it, or repress? | Should man more execrate, or boast the guilt | Which roused such vengence? which such love inflamed? | O'er guilt, how mountainous, with out-stretch'd arms | Stern justice, and soft-smiling love embrace; | Supporting in full majesty thy throne, | When seem'd its majesty to need support, | Or that, or man inevitably lost. | What, but the fathomless of thought divine, | Could labour such expedient from despair, | And rescue both? both rescue--both exalt! | O how are both exalted by the deed-- | The wondrous deed! or shall I call it more? | A wonder in OMNIPOTENCE itself! | A mystery, no less to gods than men!"
- Credit Line:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- Copyright Status:
- Public Domain
- Accession Number:
- B1992.8.10(33)
- Classification:
- Prints
- Collection:
- Prints and Drawings
- Subject Terms:
- clouds | fire | flames | horse (animal) | horses (animals) | literary theme | man | men | religious and mythological subject | sun | text
- Access:
- Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details. - Link:
- https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:3563
- Export:
- XML
- IIIF Manifest:
- JSON
YCBA Collections Search
Print made by William Blake, 1757–1827, British, 'The Sun beheld it – No, the shocking scene' (Page 75), 1797
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