"That Angel Who Rides on the Whirlwind": William Blake's Oriental Apotheosis of William Pitt
Rent from DeepDyveI wonder who can say Speak no Ill of the Dead when it is asserted in the Bible that the name of the Wicked shall Rot. It is Deistical Virtue I suppose but as I have none of this I will pour Aqua fortis on the Name of the Wicked & turn it into an Ornament & an Example to be Avoided by Some & Imitated by Others if they Please.1
On 15 May 1809, William Blake issued an advertisement for his forthcoming exhibition, to be held above his brother's hosiery shop in Broad Street, London. At an unknown date during the summer, he opened the display of his paintings along with a polemical and visionary Descriptive Catalogue. The motto to the advertisement, Milton's dictum "Fit audience find tho' few" (E, 526), suggests that Blake was aware that his paintings posed problems for the uninitiated, but also that he wished his audience to aspire to comprehension. Among the variety of objects on display, the bizarre images of Pitt and Nelson certainly confused viewers. In his advertisement, Blake highlighted these "grand Apotheoses" alongside The Ancient Britons and The Canterbury Pilgrims, suggesting their special appeal to public taste (E, 527). Despite this, we are largely left with responses recording incomprehension. [End Page 1] In the only published review of the exhibition, Robert Hunt of The Examiner complained of Blake's "wretched pictures, some of which are unintelligible allegory." In 1812 a reviewer in the Lady's Monthly Museum, having seen the paintings displayed at a subsequent exhibition hosted by the Associated Painters in Water Colours, remarked, "We dare say they may be very fine, but they are also too sublime for our comprehension."2 These responses indicate the difficulty experienced by polite commentators as they struggled to interpret bewildering images of public figures usually commemorated in a conventional and unambiguous manner. Yet Blake's confidence that there were fit viewers for his exhibition should prompt us to examine again the ways in which he attempts to communicate with his audience. The limited space available precludes an extended discussion of the Nelson painting, which shares with its companion a number of features, such as the use of eastern sculptural sources and the apotheosis genre, and also develops these in dense detail appropriate to its subject. In this article, I will focus on Blake's painting of Pitt (figure 1) and suggest that this image was much more understandable and politically resonant to an informed contemporary audience than has hitherto been recognized.
The traditional view, held by critics such as Northrop Frye and W. H. Stevenson, that at the outset of the nineteenth century Blake's works, especially his poetry, eschew the political in favor of the aesthetic and interior has more recently been contested by Nicholas Williams, Christopher Hobson, Alexander Gourlay, and Saree Makdisi, among others.3 In light of this more recent understanding, Blake's paintings of Pitt and Nelson are inescapably political, containing his most explicit and detailed engagement with individual public figures. Although several commentators have argued unconvincingly that these paintings represent Blake's reconciliation to the British government's war effort, the majority of critics recognize, instead, a satirical intent.4 I side with the latter interpretation, but I wish to examine further the ways in which Blake produces meaning in these paintings.
Apotheosis can be defined as the transformation of a human into a demigod or deity. It was widely recognized and employed as a cultural trope during Blake's lifetime. Most typically invoked in funereal and posthumous ceremonies, it entailed the soul's ascension to heaven, or translation to the stars, following a virtuous life or self-sacrifice for the nation. It could be construed as both a tenet of religious belief and as a cultural and aesthetic mode of commemoration. The beneficiary of the honor thus...
