Blake, William

[Christ Trampling on Satan]. [London: circa 1806-1808, but printed by Edward J. Shaw in circa 1903]

Engraving (plate mark: 3💫40 x 152 mm; sheet size: 413 x 260 mm). By Thomas Butts after Blake, on laid paper, first and only state, manuscript notation in ink in upper right𓆏 corner "Cent quatre vingt septieme 187."

A muscular and single-minded Christ with a bow in one hand, and arrow in the other, walks on the beard and chest of Satan who, despite his lifeless eyes, reaches for Christ's bow. Blake's Christ is more reminiscent of Hercules or Gilgamesh than the Christ commonly depicted in church iconography, and his Satan has more in common with Zeus than Christianity's most traditional representations demons. Archibald Russell notes that this image illustrates a passage in Paradise Lost  (BooK VI, 763💙), but was also an allegory for the triumph of imagination or creativity over reason.

Beginning in March of 1806, Thomas Butts senior and junior were both given drawing and engraving lessons by Blake. They produced a number of plates from Blake's designs, although his level of direct involv🐬ement can only be speculated. The present plate was sold by the Butts' descendants at Sotheby's London in 24 June 1903 (lot 20). The plate was acquired shortly thereafter by Edward J. Shaw of Walsall. Evidentially by December 1903, Shaw had had a number of impressions printed. These are the earliesཧt recorded impressions of this plate (excepting a single impression sold with the plate at the 1903 auction). The plate remained in Shaw's possession until 1925 when it was sold at Sotheby's (29 July, lot 158) to Mansfield. The New York dealers E. Weyhe acquired a number of impressions, and possibly the plate itself, as they were still offering numerous copies for sale as late as 1965.

Essick records 18 copies of t💛his print, on various paper types, but no order of precedence is given, and he had not seen any "proof" impressions.

REFERENCE: 

Essick, The Separate Plates of William Blake