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''Nebuchadnezzar'' is a colour monotype print with additions in ink and watercolour portraying the Old Testament Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II by the English poet, painter and printmaker William Blake. Taken from the Book of Daniel, the legend of Nebuchadnezzar tells of a ruler who through hubris lost his mind and was reduced to animalistic madness〔Myrone 2007, 82〕 and eating "grass as oxen".〔"(Nebuchadnezzar, circa 1795 / 1805 )". Tate. Retrieved on November 1, 2008.〕 According to the biographer Alexander Gilchrist (1828–1861), in Blake's print the viewer is faced with the "mad king crawling like a hunted beast into a den among the rocks; his tangled golden beard sweeping the ground, his nails like vultures' talons, and his wild eyes full of sullen terror. The powerful frame is losing semblance of humanity, and is bestial in its rough growth of hair, reptile in the toad-like markings and spottings of the skin, which takes on unnatural hues of green, blue, and russet."〔Gilchrist 1998, 408–409〕 Nebuchadnezzar was part of the so-called ''Large Colour Prints''; a series begun in 1795 of twelve 43 cm x 53 cm colour monotype prints, of most of which three copies were made. These were painted on millboard,〔a type of stiff board, especially used to make book covers. (description )〕 after which the board was put through Blake's printing-press with a sheet of dampened paper to make the prints. After they were printed, Blake and his wife Catherine added ink and watercolour to the impressions.〔Bentley 2003, 158–159 and Wilson, 67〕 It existed in four impressions (copies), now in: Tate Britain in London, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,〔(MFA, Boston ), Butlin 302〕 the Minneapolis Institute of Art,〔(Minneapolis Institute of Arts ), Butlin 303〕 and a fourth which has been missing since 1887.〔(Blake Archive ) Butlin 303〕 Blake believed that Nebuchadnezzar was connected to the Christian apocalypse and to his personal view on the stages of human development. ==History== ''Nebuchadnezzar'' was adapted from an earlier print in Blake's ''The Marriage of Heaven and Hell''.〔Lincoln 2003, 220〕 The plates for the ''Large Colour Prints'' and the first prints were made in 1795, but further impressions seem to have been printed in about 1805.〔Wilson, 67〕 In the late summer of 1805, Blake sold to Thomas Butts Jr. eight impressions of the ''Large Colour Prints'', including the Tate ''Nebuchadnezzar'', for £1.1 each.〔Bentley 2002, 191〕 John Clark Strange bought Butts's prints on 29 June 1853 and later acquired the rest of the collection that was sold to Henry George Bohn. Although he originally wanted to produce a biography on Blake, he later abandoned this idea after he learned of Gilchrist's biography. However, his journal was filled with his notes for the biography, and contain many accounts from those who knew Blake, excerpts from Blake's journal, and analysis of Blake's work.〔Bentley 2002, 493〕 In his journal, he describes Nebuchadnezzar "crawling on his belly, naked covered with hair & nails grown long, eating grass.—'What was singular was that Blake's conception was almost a facsimile of an ancient German print of the same subject and which design Blake had never seen."〔quoted in Bentley 2002, 496〕 Kenneth Clark identified the earlier image as a book illustration of a werewolf by Lucas Cranach the Elder,〔(''The Early Illuminated Books'' ). Morris Eaves, Robert N. Essick, Joseph Viscomi, David Bindman, 139, Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-00147-2, ISBN 978-0-691-00147-0〕 although a closer similarity is with the small figure of the saint in Albrecht Dürer's 1496 engraving ''The Penance of St. John Chrysostom''.〔Collins Baker, C. H. "The Sources of Blake's Pictorial Expression". 360. ''The Huntington Library Quarterly'', Vol. 4, No. 3 (Apr., 1941), 359-367. "Blake's ... appropriation and adaptation from Durer's 'St. John Chrysostom' is well known: we can hardly doubt that the invention of his Nebuchadnezzar came about in this wise. The little crawling figure in the background of Durer's print caught his fancy, so that when he wanted an idea for Nebuchadnezzar he though, 'Why, that's the very thing; but I will show the face.' Incidentally, that alteration and an attempt to exhibit the outcast King's emanciation, deplorably overtaxed Blake's anatomical knowledge." The print is Bartsch no. 63 (Image )〕 Image:Werwolf2.png|Detail of woodcut by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1512 Image:Penance detail.jpg|Detail of "The Penance of St. John Chrysostom", engraving, 1496 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Nebuchadnezzar (Blake)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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