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Print made by William Blake, 1757–1827

"And this the form of mighty Hand..." (Plate 70)

1804 to 1820

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Print made by William Blake, 1757–1827, "And this the form of mighty Hand..." (Plate 70), 1804 to 1820, Relief etching printed in orange ink, with watercolor and pen and black ink on moderately thick, smooth, cream wove paper, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B1992.8.1(70).




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  • Accession Number

    B1992.8.1(70)

  • Creator

    Print made by William Blake, 1757–1827

  • Title

    "And this the form of mighty Hand..." (Plate 70)

  • Part Of

    Collective Title: Jerusalem: The Emanation of The Giant Albion, Copy E

  • Date

    1804 to 1820

  • Materials & Techniques

    Relief etching printed in orange ink, with watercolor and pen and black ink on moderately thick, smooth, cream wove paper

  • Dimensions

    Sheet: 13 1/2 x 10 3/8 inches (34.3 x 26.4 cm), Plate: 8 3/4 x 6 3/8 inches (22.2 x 16.2 cm)

  • Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering

    Inscribed in orange ink, upper right: "70"

    Lettered inside image: "And this the form of mighty Hand sitting on Albion's cliffs | Before the face of Albion, a mighty threat'ning Form. | His bosom wide & shoulders huge, overspreading wondrous, | Bear Three strong sinewy Necks & Three awful & terrible Heads, | Three Brains in contradictory council brooding incessantly, | Neither daring to put in act its councils, fearing each other, | Therefore rejecting Ideas as nothing & holding all Wisdom | To consist in the agreements & disagree[me]nts of Ideas, | Plotting to devour Albion's Body of Humanity & Love. | Such Form the aggregate of the Twelve Sons of Albion took: & such | Their appearance when combin'd: but often by birth -pangs & loud groans | They divide to Twelve: the key-bones & the chest dividing in pain | Disclose a hideous orifice; thence issuing the Giant-brood | Arise as the smoke of the furnace, shaking the rocks from sea to sea, | And there they combine into Three Forms, named Bacon & Newton & Locke, | In the Oak Groves of Albion which overspread all the Earth. | Imputing Sin & Righteousness to Individuals, Rahab | Sat deep within him hid: his Feminine Power unreveal'd | Brooding Abstract Philosophy, to destroy Imagination, the Divine- | Humanity: A Three-fold Wonder, feminine, most beautiful, Three-fold | Each within other. On her white marble & even Neck, her Heart | Inorb'd and bonified: with locks of shadowing modesty, shining | Over her beautiful Female features, soft flourishing in beauty, | Beams mild, all love and all perfection, that when the lips | Recieve a kiss from Gods or Men, a threefold kiss returns | From the press'd loveliness; so her whole immortal form, three-fold, | Three-fold embrace returns: consuming lives of Gods & Men, | In fires of beauty melting them as gold & silver in the furnace. | Her Brain enlabyrinths the whole heaven of her bosom & loins | To put in act what her Heart wills; O who can withstand her power? | Her name is Vala in Eternity : in Time her name is Rahab. | The Starry Heavens all were fled from the mighty limbs of Albion | His"

  • Credit Line

    Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

  • Copyright Status

    Public Domain

  • Classification

    Prints

  • Collection

    Prints and Drawings

  • Subject Terms

    arch | clouds | hills | literary theme | monument | religious and mythological subject | sky | standing | sun | text | women

  • Access

    Accessible in the Study Room [Request]

  • Link

    https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:3504

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William Blake: Burning Bright (Yale Center for British Art, 2025-09-04 - 2025-12-07) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Romantic Print in the Age of Revolutions: Hero, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History (Yale Center for British Art, 2003-01-23 - 2003-06-01) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

William Blake (Tate Britain, 2000-11-02 - 2001-02-04) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

The Human Form Divine - William Blake from the Paul Mellon Collection (Yale Center for British Art, 1997-04-02 - 1997-07-06) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

William Blake - His Art & Times (Art Gallery of Ontario, 1982-12-03 - 1983-02-06) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

William Blake - His Art & Times (Yale Center for British Art, 1982-09-15 - 1982-11-14) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

David Bindman, The History of British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2008, pp. 27, 29 (vol. 2), pl. 5, N6761 +H57 2008 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

He´le`ne Pharabod-Ibata, The Challenge of the Sublime, from Burke's Philosophical Enquiry to British Romantic Art, Manchester University Press, Manchester, p. 242, fig. 26, NX650.S92 P43 2018 (LC) (YCBA) [YCBA]

Elizabeth Wyckoff, Blake, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, pp. 81, 92, pl. 63, NJ18 .B57 W93 2025 (YCBA) [OCLC]

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