Ancient of Days by William Blake Print

In Ancient of Days, English poet and painter William Blake imagines God the Father mapping out the cosmos with a compass of light and willing the universe into existence. The title “Ancient of Days” is a reference to the Old Testament book of the prophet Daniel, the same passage that Jesus frequently referenced when he referred to himself as the “Son of Man.” This piece is said to have been Blake’s favorite work; he hand-painted 13 known copies of Ancient of Days, each with slight variations in color and style. William Blake himself was a tremendously gifted artist – a poet, engraver, printer, and painter – whose passion and desire to seek the face of God was compromised by his brooding cynicism. Thomas Merton called it “the rebellion of the saints,” and likened Blake to an irate prophet of the Old Testament for 18th century England. Blake intensely loathed Christian hypocrisy, moralism, and stodginess, and so had an unfortunately adversarial relation