nebuchadnezzar

In the 1790s

William Blake made a series of prints on oppression. One of them was about the great Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar.




Nebuchadnezzar had a dream he did not understand so he asked his jewish advisor Daniel to explain it. Summarized Daniel said he would be punished, and the punishment would end after seven years when he would acknowledge the supreme power in heaven.


This is a copper engraving coloured with pen, ink a










Nebuchadnezzar by Blake

wiki common





Frrom Wikipedia:


Nebuchadnezzar is a colour monotype print



with additions ink and watercolour portraying the Old Testament Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II by the English

poet, painter and printmaker William Blake. Taken from the

Book of Daniel , the legend of Nebuchadnezzar tells of a ruler

who through hubris lost his mind and was reduced to animalistic madness[ and eating "grass as oxen"








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This picture is connected with Blake's personal journey, which he described in a letter to....


Blake had this to say about Nebu:

"Nebuchadnezzar had seven times passed over him; I have had twenty; thank God I was not altogether a beast as he was; but I was a slave bound in a mill amont beasts and

devils these beasts and these devils are now, together with myself, become children of light and liberty. and me feet and my wife's feet are free from fetters.