Education Today

Imagine writing against the government when retaliation against political enemies was swift and very final. Imagine you could not come out and say what you wanted to say. Imagine you had incredible knowledge and ability to share, but felt stifled, what would you do?

The Getty Museum Background

I had the privilige of visiting the Los Angeles Getty museum last Friday with my mother and it absolutely blew my mind, not for the first time. The museum focuses on Neo-Classical and Renaissance art and has an incredible collection, inlcluding: Van Gogh, Monet, Greek and Roman artifacts, a full bedroom from Versailles, a giant portrait of Louis the XIV, as well as a mesmerizing William Blake exhibit.

Being the history nerd that I am, I pretty much had to be dragged out of each exhibit by my mother. She took me to Europe twice when I was younger and planted the seeds of my final form. We took a tour of the collection which gave us a lot of background information into the different styles of art and the architecture of the building itself, which was quite remarkable. The stone used to build the museum were intentionally brought from where the materials to construct the Roman coliseum were collected, as a sort of modern Renaissance tribute to the Greco-Roman Empires.

Portrait of Louise de Keroualle, Duchess of Portsmouthabout 1671–1674Peter Lely (Dutch, active England, 1618 - 1680)On view at Getty Center, Museum South Pavilion, Gallery S105

William Blake – OB Original Blogger

The William Blake exhibit captured my imagination in a way that made me feel as if I were back in the 1450’s. The exhibit had over one-hundred illustrations, many with poems attached of his classical work. The curators of the exhibit had the foresight to have magnifying glasses next to the illustrations and poems so that the visitor could read the poems themselves! It is quite something to study about Renaissance artists/thinkers for 30 years and actually be able to read the original texts for yourself, unvarnished.

Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Gian Albion (1804-1820)

The Jerusalem collection at first glance looked like fairly classical art dealing with religious themes, but when the visitor learned the full purpose of the poem and illustrations as subversive commentary against the British government, in a very sneaky way, it takes on quite a different meaning.

Is this thy soft Family-Love
Thy cruel Patriarchal pride
Planting thy Family alone
Destroying all the World beside.
(27:76-80, E 173

It turns out Blake was quite the critic of patriarchy. He saw the only hope for humanity as turning from patriarchy with its wars and testosterone driven policies. Alive during the Napoleonic Wars and the crushing defeat of Great Britain during the American Revolution, Blake had a front seat to the decay and decline of a the one of the greatest empires of all time. He like many of his contemporaries including William Wordsworth, William Tennyson, and Helen-Hunt Jackson had to be mindful of how they phrased things, but subtly enough that people could figure out what they were talking about.

Blake cleverly used mythical characters to symbolize the social and political conflicts of the time and how he saw them. It is fascinating to look at this ancient book of quasi-science fiction. To me it is like the Star Wars of the late 1700’s.

The patriarch whose fall and redemption are the subject of Jerusalem is Albion, Blake’s Universal Man. His fall was also described in The Four Zoas, but there the Zoas themselves (the components of Albion’s unfallen self) took center stage. In Jerusalem, the Zoas are relatively minor players, and the focus is on Albion himself, his sons and daughters, and Jerusalem, “the Emanation of the Giant Albion,” as the poem’s title informs us.
Jerusulem and the Origins of Patriarchy

Key Takeaways

William Blake, a controversial yet idealistic painter/poet of the late 1700’s gives us a window into his mind with his illustrations and poems. I could not help but think that if Blake were alive today, he would probably be a blogger! In a way his art and work, were reflective of the early efforts at exploring consciousness in art without the patronage of the church. His themes or resisting oppression, radical change, and anti-patriarchal views made him a visionary of his time.

Thanks for reading Bunchiesblog! If you happen to hear about the William Blake exhibit at a museum near you, I highly encourage you to check it out! You won’t be disappointed! Check out some of my other recent articles if you have a moment!