Illustration 3 to Milton's "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity": The Old Dragon.

Maker William Blake (British, 1757 - 1827)

Additional Title(s)

Illustrations to "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity" [no. 3 of 6]
The Old Dragon

Collections

ClassificationsDRAWINGS

Dateca. 1814-1816

Mediumpen and watercolor

Dimensions6 1/4 x 4 13/16 in. (15.8 x 12.3 cm.) mount: 14 x 9 7/16 in. (35.5 x 24 cm.)

DescriptionBlake has drawn images from at least two parts of the ode to epitomize the pagan gods sent to hell by the coming of Christ. They are all pictured "under ground,/ In straighter limits bound" (168-69). Later in the ode, Milton describes their imprisonment in "th' infernal jail" (233) as happening when the sun is "in bed" (229). Accordingly, Blake has colored this design in tones that suggest a moonlit (see 236) night scene. The largest, central demon is very probably "Th' old Dragon" (168) who "Swinges the scaly Horror of his folded tail" (172). His seven heads (at least two of which seem female) and the way his tail joins a band of stars associate him with the "great red dragon" whose "tail drew the third part of the stars in heaven" in Revelation 12:3-4. Blake has returned to one of Milton's own sources for a fuller description of the old Dragon. Blake had earlier pictured this Biblical beast, associated with "that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan" in Revelation 12:9, in three watercolors of ca. 1803-1805: two versions of "The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun" (Brooklyn Museum and National Gallery of Art, Washington; Butlin 1981, Nos. 519-20), and "The Great Red Dragon and the Beast from the Sea" (National Gallery of Art, Washington; Butlin 1981, No. 521). The Dragon in this "Nativity Ode" design holds a heavy Roman sword in his left hand and in his right a staff topped by a finial in the shape of a pomegranate, a fruit associated with hell. [1] Snakes twine around the monster's ankles. Below the old Dragon sits a scaly creature with webbed hands. This is probably Dagon, referred to in the ode as "that twice-batt'd god of Palestine" (199). [2] The old woman upper left may be "Ashtaroth" (200), another name for the Phoenician moon goddess Astarte. Her posture and face associate her with the figure on plate 16 of Blake's For Children: The Gates of Paradise (engraved 1793); the veil over her head suggests Vala, a nature goddess in Blake's own mythology. The two writhing bodies, lower right and left, recall the fallen angels in Blake's first and seventh illustrations to Paradise Lost (see 000.1 and 000.8). The figure on the left margin is close to a mirror image of the devil on the right margin of the first Paradise Lost design. Hellish flames rise just below the figure in the lower right corner. The company of fallen gods is completed by the bearded face and shadowy body upper right. On the horizon in the upper, above-ground portion of the design is the stable, a humble reminder of a godly presence stronger than all the fearsome devils below. The three figures kneeling before the light-filled center of the stable immediately suggest the three wise men, although the events of the poem take place before the arrival of the "Star-led Wizards" (23). Two large angels stand in profile (see 244) on either side of the central portal, their wings extended over the pitch of the roof. The slight outlines of two standing figures, probably Mary and Joseph, appear within. In the earlier, Whitworth version, the faces of the old gods are more strongly characterized. Some look like ghoulish caricatures or the physiognomic portraits among Blake's "Visionary Heads." The old Dragon has only six heads, similar in their exaggerated features to the heads of the beast in Blake's "The Whore of Babylon," a watercolor of 1809 (British Museum; Butlin 1981, No. 523). His large tail coils in front of his shins, undulates into the sky on the right, and merges with a band of stars extending from right to left above the stable. His left hand, swordless, points directly at the stable door above his central two heads; his right hand grasps a staff with a fleur-de-lis finial, the central bowl of which resembles a pomegranate. To the right is a human figure covering his loins (see Satan in 000.4 and 000.8). Upper left, but still below the surface of the earth, are a head, a woman's torso with scales below her breasts, and a seated devil with a grotesque masculine face but female breasts. Below and to the left of this last figure are four heads, two apparently female and one bearded. The raised right hand of the bearded figure grasps a small bag; the lowest figure holds a dagger. A large devil in the lower left corner leans on a sword and shield decorated with lightning bolts terminating in spear points. To the right is a human figure, seen from the back, reaching upward with his right arm. The stable is much larger, in relation to the land and sky, than in the Huntington version. Within the portal we see the Virgin holding the infant Jesus on the right and a kneeling figure (Joseph?) on the left. Sheep rest on each side of the central bay. A pencil sketch of the design in the British Museum (Butlin 1981, No. 540) shows the old Dragon with seven heads, as in the Huntington version, but is in all other respects much closer to the Whitworth version. Although the other extant sketches for the "Nativity Ode" watercolors (see 000.1 and 000.6) are transitional between the two series, this drawing may be a preliminary for the earlier set. The Dragon's left hand was first sketched to the right of his knees, and perhaps grasping the scepter, but then moved over his head as in the Whitworth design. Behrendt 1976, 86-89, places this design as the fifth in both series, apparently as an illustration of the jailing of the old gods, 229-36. This ordering creates a symmetrical pattern, with the first and last designs showing the stable close up, the second and penultimate designs showing it in the distance, and the two central designs the only ones without the Nativity scene. Notes 1. Noted in Dunbar 1980, 100. 2. Dagon is described as half man, half fish in Paradise Lost, 1:462-63, and as a "Sea Monster" in Blake's Milton (Blake 1982, 138).

SignedSigned on lower left or right: W Blake

InscribedInscribed on the mount below the image in golden brown ink in a fine italic script are lines 165-172 of the poem. Signed in lower left or right: W Blake

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

Label TextThe incarnation of Christ sends the pagan gods-some scaly, others with multiple heads-down to hell. The serpent-like tail of one false god leaves behind a trail of stars above the stable of the Nativity, pictured in the distance with the three wise men bowing before it.

Status

Not on view

Object number000.16

Terms