Laocoon (Blake)

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Laocoön
by William Blake

Laocoön, copy B, object 1 (Bentley 1, Erdman 1, Keynes 1)

673250LaocoönWilliam Blake


[Laocoön]



      If Morality was Christianity Socrates was the Saviour[1]

יה [Jehovah] & his two Sons Satan & Adam as they were copied from the Cherubim
of Solomons Temple by three Rhodians & applied to Natural Fact, or History of Ilium
      Art Degraded Imagination Denied War Governed the Nations

5Evil[2]

Good & Evil are[3]
Riches & Poverty a Tree of
            Misery
      propagating
      10 Generation & Death

The Gods of Priam are the Cherubim of Moses & Solomon: The Hosts[4]
            of Heaven

Without Unceasing Practise nothing can be done Practise is Art
      If you leave off you are Lost

15 The Angel of the Divine Presence[5]

מלאך יהוה [Angel of Jehovah]

ΟΦΙουΧος [Serpent-holder]

                  HEBREW ART is[6]
            called SIN by the Deist SCIENCE
      20 All that we See is Vision
from Generated Organs gone as soon as come
      Permanent in The Imagination; Considerd
            as Nothing by the
                  NATURAL MAN

25 What can be Created
Can be Destroyed
      Adam is only
The Natural Man
& not the Soul
30 or Imagination

Good[7]

לילית [Lilith]

Satans Wife The Goddess Nature is War & Misery & Heroism a Miser[8]

      Spiritual War
35 Israel deliverd from Egypt
      is Art deliverd from
            Nature & Imitation

            A Poet a Painter a Musician an Architect : the Man
            Or Woman who is not one of these is not a Christian
40 You must leave Fathers & Mothers & Houses & Lands if they stand in the way of Art

The Eternal Body of Man is The IMAGINATION, that is God himself
The Divine Body } ישע [Yeshua] JESUS we are his
          Members

            It manifests itself in his Works of Art (In Eternity All is Vision)
45 The True Christian Charity not dependent on Money (the lifes blood of Poor Families)
      that is on Caesar or Empire or Natural Religion
Money, which is The Great Satan or Reason
      the Root of Good & Evil
            In The Accusation of Sin

50 Prayer is the Study of Art Praise is the Practise of Art
Fasting &c. all relate to Art The outward Ceremony is Antichrist

      Where any view of Money exists Art cannot be carried on, but War only
                               Read Matthew C X. 9 & 10v[9]
by pretences to the Two Impossibilities Chastity & Abstinence Gods of the Heathen

He repented that he had made Adam
      55 (of the Female, the Adamah)
            & it grieved him at his heart

Art can never exist without[10]
      Naked Beauty displayed
The Gods of Greece & Egypt were Mathematical
                  60 Diagrams
                  See Plato's
                  Works

            Divine Union
      Deriding
65 And Denying Immediate
Communion with God
The Spoilers say
Where are his Works
That he did in the Wilderness
            70 Lo what are these
Whence came they
These are not the Works
Of Egypt nor Babylon
Whose Gods are the Powers
75 Of this World. Goddess, Nature.
Who first spoil & then destroy
Imaginative Art
For their Glory is
War and Dominion
80 Empire against Art See Virgils Eneid.
Lib. VI.v 848
For every
Pleasure
Money
85 Is Useless

      There are States
            in which. all
            Visionary Men
                  are accounted
                  90 Mad Men
            such are
      Greece & Rome
      Such is
      Empire
95 or Tax
See Luke Ch 2.v l

Jesus & his Apostles & Disciples were all Artists Their Works were destroyd by the
                               Seven Angels of the Seven Churches in Asia Antichrist Science[11]
            The unproductive Man is not a Christian much less the Destroyer

The Old & New Testaments are the Great Code of Art
100SCIENCE is the Tree of DEATH
            ART is the Tree
            of LIFE
            GOD
            is JESUS

105The Whole Business of Man Is
The Arts & All Things Common
            No Secre
            sy in Art
What we call Antique Gems are the Gems of Aarons Breast Plate
110 Christianity is Art & not Money
Money is its Curse
Is not every Vice possible to Man
      described in the Bible openly
All is not Sin that Satan calls so
      115 all the Loves & Graces of Eternity

Drawn & Engraved by William Blake.[12]


c. 1826-7


Notes

  1. Below the plinth.
  2. Above the serpent's head on the left.
  3. Angled around the right arm of the left figure.
  4. Curved around the right arm of the central figure.
  5. Above the central figure.
  6. In an arc above and to the right of the central figure.
  7. Above the head of the serpent biting the central figure's left hip.
  8. Around the head and left side of the right figure.
  9. Horizontally in the top margin.
  10. Horizontally in the top margin.
  11. Vertically in the right margin, top to bottom.
  12. Signature on the plinth.