VIZIJA U @IVOTU I DELU VILIJEMA BLEJKA
(Viziuni în viaţa şi opera lui William Blake)
Jelena KRNETA
Universitatea din Belgrad, Serbia
Abstract
The art and poetry of William Blake is exquisite, but apart of being the artist and the poet he was visionary above all. That includes being thinker, spiritualist, mystic and modern prophet.
His work was absolutely exeptional concerning the time and historical background in which it had been created, but as well as concerning our contemporary perspective. He had been creating in a period of transition in the european history, in the times of revolutions and when romanticism had been replacing neoclassicism. Although he is usually considered as the artist of romanticism, he never really and completely belonged to any historical art movement, nor his art could have ever been fully defined or interpreted. He always remained independent by creating and describing his own Universe, but also the Universe we are all living in, but never really experiencing it as he did, as the absolute and infinite. He was always completely devoted only to his inner guide – the Imagination in his creative process, so he was considered a rebell and even a madman by his contemporaries.
He was deeply spiritual, but never really traditionally religious. He created his own mythology and characters and his art is fully symbolic. Sources of his inspiration, apart of his vision and imagination, are various. It is known that he had been delighted and influenced by medieval art, and most of his art are iluminated books (illuminated manuscripts were very known and spreaded form of medieval art and painting) that so successfully combined his poetry and painting, even though his technique and expression are original and very unique. His motives and representations oftenly seem to be monumental, almost comparable with some of great mannirist wall decorations (of Michelangelo and Gulio Romano), but yet they are just book illuminations, which make his art even greater. Unfotunately, his art was not understood, excepted or praised during his lifetime. Most of his life he had spent poorly and in isolation, but yet happy and fullfilled by his freedom and creativity, because glory ment nothing to him. He was a genious, artist and visionary in its wholeness!