preview

Essay about William Blake´s Pity based on Shakespeare´s Macbeth

Decent Essays
Open Document

William Blake's colour print painting filled with watercolors and ink is known as Pity, it is one of a large group of paintings known as "Large Colour Prints". In Pity, a woman lying on the ground appears to be deceased, while two figures riding horses fly above her with a young baby in hand. This painting was completed in 1795, but the painting relates more to the characteristics of renaissance style drawing. Sense the woman figure lying down does not appear in Macbeth’s simile on Pity, the woman figure lying down creates difficulties for commentators who draw conclusions on Shakespeare’s text in their interpretations of Blake's painting. By exploring the influences of Blake’s own visual and verbal imagination of which he acquires from …show more content…

The women figure lying on the ground looks as if she is dead. She lies there gazing up into nowhere with a solid glare. Instead of the angel figure giving life to the figure lying down; it seems as if the angel figure is taking the life of a baby from her, as she is now dead and the angels are taking care of the baby. The angel figure from the horse reaches her arms out to grasp the baby. All of the figures have the same hair color, blonde with slight curls. Along with the curls we notice that the front angel figure's hair is being blown straight up; this will later be explained.
There are four figures and two horses in this painting. Each of the horses are centered and facing horizontally with very few vertical lines. The majority of the painting is smooth flowing without jagged, sharp or straight lines. In Pity there is darkness surrounding the characters, forcing the figures to stand out with great measure in the light. The colors in the background do not convey meaning to the picture. The background is dark and solemn, resembling blank space. The figures in Pity seem to carry the meaning, as opposed to the background. Because there is darkness surrounding the figures, there does not seem to be a source of the light, yet light does outline each figure. It seems that Blake did this to focus on the figures and not the background. In this painting the horses are painted grey. Grey is more of a monotone color resembling peace. The figure riding on the

Get Access