jeblog

Gates of Paradise Plate 3

Plate 3.

I've had this plate as my computer monitor wallpaper for more than a week. I'm pretty tired of it. There's not a lot to it. Though it certainly is surreal. It has a picture of a matronly woman, under a tree with hanging moss (or maybe it's a catalpa tree, with long, hanging seed pods) holding a baby in swaddling clothes against her lap as she reaches down and pulls (harvests) from the ground a carrot (or other root vegetable) with the face of another toddler. The inscription underneath the image says "I found him beneath a tree."

What to make of this? I already discussed, in my discussion of plate one, the idea of the vegetative state, the state of physical need contrasted with the life of imagination and spiritual freedom, that most of us live in far past our infancy. In plate one I thought the hybrid was a child and a worm, but even then I thought it looked more like a vegetable such as a carrot--I decided it was a worm because there was a caterpillar immediately above it. But now I've decided it's a carrot-child after all. That's certainly more illustrative of the vegetative state.

And here, in plate 3, we have the carrot-child again, being pulled from the ground by a mother-figure. She has the classical lineaments of most of Blake's figures, looking vaguely Roman. But frankly I don't what else to say. I enjoy it as I enjoy much surreal art, but as a narrative it's fairly confusing, being a hybrid of not only of human and vegetable, but also a hybrid of visual languages. I can at least conclude that the monstrous hybrids are not unique to the later Blake (such as one finds in Jerusalem), but begin here, early in Blake's career (1793).

I want to also mention that it has a publication date on this plate. It says: "Published 17 May 1793 by W Blake." This repeats information found on the frontispiece. Why Blake felt the need to repeat the information on what is in effect the first page of the book (it's numbered "1") I don't know at this point (OK, I just went to plate 4 and now I have a clue. All the plates have a publication date. This is, I assume, because this is an emblem book which means that some of the emblems are meant to be published separately.)

I think I definitely need to to do some research on emblem books, which is what this is. What was their function, visually and in terms of the print culture of this time? How do the plates work individually, and as a book/narrative? How do the images and text work together (do they?). And in its digital application--does the fact that this is an emblem book work better for my purposes, reading this book as a series of wallpaper backgrounds to my computer (for explanation of the game, go to existential game 16: Blakean new media spiritual exercise reading (October 21)? Since the plates are designed to stand alone, with little textual narrative, I think it does work better for my purposes. Though I do wish the pictures were prettier...

And now time to wallpaper plate 4. Hopefully it won't be another week before I blog about it.

Posted by jeb at November 10, 2004 10:50 PM | TrackBack