Nebuchadnezzar and the Creation of Dissedence :: Essays Papers

Nebuchadnezzar and the Creation of DissedenceThe artist of the piece to be examined, Nebuchadnezzar, painted in 1795, is the wild-eyed poet, author, artist and theorist William Blake. I viewed the piece on Monday 27 phratry 1999 at the Tate Gallery in Westminster. The piece is a colour scratch finished in ink pen and watercolour on paper. (See look 1) The subject of the piece is King Nebauchadnezzar, ruler of the Babylonian empire from 605 to 562 B.C. The story behind the image is that of partly historical and partly mythological backround. The world-beater is a factual person, but the image which Blake depicts is from a story of Nebauchadnezzars breathing in and the allegorical interpretations of historical events in the Old Testaments Book of Daniel to illustrate the ply of God. The story of King Nebauchadnezzar which the print depicts is that of one of the Kings dreams. The powerful Machiavellian queen mole rat dreamed one night of a great tree outgrowth fro m the earth. The tree produced abundant amounts of fruit and it grew until its top reached heaven. A celestial cosmos appeared in the Kings dream and ordered him to cut the tree down, leaving scarce its roots bound in iron and bronze in the grass. The equal being then decreed that the Kings mind be changed from a mans to a beasts. Because the King did not understand his dream, he called on the prophet Daniel to formulate it. Daniel told him that Nebuchadnezzar was the strong tree in his dream. He interpreted the dream as being a decree from God that the mighty King who command without care for anyone but himself would be condemened to dwell with the beasts so that he would differentiate Gods superior power.