BLAKE'S FEMALE NUDES

The images of nudes in Blake are not there to call attention to themselves but to further the contrast between between the Human Form Divine and the fallen world. Each passage of poetry and each image of 'naked beauty displayed' includes references to a darker, uglier side of reality.

On Page 359 of Fearful Symmetry Northrop Frye wrote this to explain why Jerusalem may seem harsh and strident:

"He wrote Jerusalem in the age of Goya and Beethoven. And this new kind of genius has the analytic quality of a revolutionary age which will not be satisfied with an impressive appearance designed to conceal an ugly reality. 

...

[Jerusalem's] primary effort is to see the Antichrist as the face of things, the literal appearance of a fallen world. This is the fundamental difference between the approach between Jerusalem and the Four Zoas, which latter has more of the rococo spirit, and much loveliness...The motive that drives Blake on through his gloomy and tormented visions is the same motive that drove Goya through his recording the disasters of war. In both cases the charge of ugliness is irrelevant, and intensity, honesty, a grim resolve to portray experience as it is regardless of horror, and a passionately sincere clairvoyance, are the prophetic qualities involved."    

 

Yale Center for British Art

Jerusalem

Plate 63

Jerusalem, Plate 64, (E 215)

"Then All the Daughters of Albion became One before Los: even Vala!
And she put forth her hand upon the Looms in dreadful howlings
Till she vegetated into a hungry Stomach & a devouring Tongue.
Her Hand is a Court of Justice, her Feet: two Armies in Battle
Storms & Pestilence: in her Locks: & in her Loins Earthquake.    
And Fire. & the Ruin of Cities & Nations & Families & Tongues

She cries: The Human is but a Worm, & thou O Male: Thou art
Thyself Female, a Male: a breeder of Seed: a Son & Husband: & Lo.
The Human Divine is Womans Shadow, a Vapor in the summers heat
Go assume Papal dignity thou Spectre, thou Male Harlot! Arthur   
Divide into the Kings of Europe in times remote O Woman-born
And Woman-nourishd & Woman-educated & Woman-scorn'd!

Yale Center for British Art 
Jerusalem
Title Page detail 

Jerusalem, Plate 85, (E 244)

"plant ye
The Seeds O Sisters in the bosom of Time & Spaces womb
To spring up for Jerusalem: lovely Shadow of Sleeping Albion
Why wilt thou rend thyself apart & build an Earthly Kingdom    
To reign in pride & to opress & to mix the Cup of Delusion
O thou that dwellest with Babylon! Come forth O lovely-one
Plate 86
I see thy Form O lovely mild Jerusalem, Wingd with Six Wings
In the opacous Bosom of the Sleeper, lovely Three-fold
In Head & Heart & Reins, three Universes of love & beauty
Thy forehead bright: Holiness to the Lord, with Gates of pearl
Reflects Eternity beneath thy azure wings of feathery down     
Ribbd delicate & clothd with featherd gold & azure & purple
From thy white shoulders shadowing, purity in holiness!
Thence featherd with soft crimson of the ruby bright as fire
Spreading into the azure Wings which like a canopy
Bends over thy immortal Head in which Eternity dwells        
Albion beloved Land; I see thy mountains & thy hills
And valleys & thy pleasant Cities Holiness to the Lord
I see the Spectres of thy Dead O Emanation of Albion." 

Yale Center for British Art
Jerusalem
Plate 32 

 Jerusalem, Plate 11, (E 154)  
 "Vala  is but thy Shadow, O thou loveliest among women!
  A shadow animated by thy tears O mournful Jerusalem!
  Plate 12
  Why wilt thou give to her a Body whose life is but a Shade?.
  Her joy and love, a shade: a shade of sweet repose:
  But animated and vegetated, she is a devouring worm:
  What shall we do for thee O lovely mild Jerusalem?" 

Wikipedia Commons 
Illustration of Paradise Lost 
Satan Exulting over Eve

Four Zoas, Night VII, Page 87, (E 369)
"But Los stood on the Limit of Translucence weeping & trembling
Filled with doubts in self accusation beheld the fruit  
Of Urizens Mysterious tree For Enitharmon thus spake

When In the Deeps beneath I gatherd of this ruddy fruit 
It was by that I knew that I had Sinnd & then I knew
That without a ransom I could not be savd from Eternal death
That Life lives upon Death & by devouring appetite
All things subsist on one another thenceforth in Despair
I spend my glowing time but thou art strong & mighty  
To bear this Self conviction take then Eat thou also of
The fruit & give me proof of life Eternal or I die

Then Los plucked the fruit & Eat & sat down in Despair
And must have given himself to death Eternal But
Urthonas spectre in part mingling with him comforted him  
Being a medium between him & Enitharmon   But This Union
Was not to be Effected without Cares & Sorrows & Troubles
Of six thousand Years of self denial and of bitter Contrition"