Blake, William (1757-1827)
The Ancient of Days
1794
Relief etching with watercolor
23.3 x 16.8 cm (9 1/8 x 6 7/8 in.)
Blake, William (1757-1827)
The Ancient of Days
1794
Relief etching with watercolor
23.3 x 16.8 cm (9 1/8 x 6 7/8 in.)
Blake was a selfmade man naming his own gods. Still he arrives at the same conclusion: God is to be found in nature, in the ancient way of respecting the sun by measuring the days calculating scales for sundials and schemes for calendars. When this picture was painted the ancient days were over . Not only had the French Revolution taken place, also the mean of time had been introduced before the revolution. Dynamic time had died beforehand. In fact the Revolution was originally led, storming the Bastille, by a clockmaker. Napoleon though finding out how clumsy, of ill research and poor consciousness, the timereform in fact was abolished it and simply declared war to any government of the false authority of the supposed to be worn-out class-system. The revolution was in fact a failure of timereform,a symptom of the new fixation of mechanical time with its falsehood of mean time as the ancient days were over definitely. The sun had to be remembered along with the ancient way of calculating our days with that. The picture can also be interpreted as an accusation against the measuring of mankind taking the position of God in the sun. Anyhow thus the selfmade God of humanity in the sun went with Blake to the museum. Maybe someday that will be exclusively so.
© Time Art Gallery/hall 3
