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| William Blake, Frontispiece, Songs of Innocence and of Experience |
William Blake’s illuminated books are considered by many as the prototype of the modern artist’s book. His works, such as Songs of Innocence and Experience, were made entirely by Blake (and his wife), using hand written text, illustrations and decorations. The reproduced prints were individually hand coloured (making each unique), and all of the poetry and text within was written by Blake himself. Thus books like Songs of Innocence and Experience are entirely his own production. This is what makes them comparable to artist’s books of today, which are handmade ‘books’ (and I do use that term loosely) made by artists.
The obvious difference between Blake’s work and many modern artist’s books (as discussed last week) is of course that Blake doesn’t question or explore the traditional physical structure of the book. He doesn’t make his works into sculpture-like pieces of art. Instead, what makes them an artist’s book is the extent to which they are decorated (text/image/decoration) and the fact that this was all done by hand. This perhaps makes them more comparable to medieval illuminated manuscripts.
Some historians compare Blake’s books with medieval illuminated manuscripts, as they are both produced by hand, and illustrated and illuminated in a similar fashion. Of course, as we have seen, many medieval manuscripts were in fact the work of several artists/scribes/illuminators in a production-line type arrangement, who catered to the patron’s individual needs, and who often borrowed their imagery and symbols from earlier examples. Additionally the texts in medieval manuscripts were usually reproductions (or personalised alterations) of existing texts. Nonetheless, one can see the following on of the tradition of illuminated manuscripts in Blake’s work – they are in fact illuminated manuscripts in their own right.
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| William Blake, "The Sick Rose", Songs of Innocence |
There are many similarities between Blake’s works and medieval precedents. They both show the same careful attention to detail, intricate hand craftsmanship, and most importantly, the integration of image and text. This is the quality that is most praised in Blake’s work. The content of his poetry was reflected and elaborated on in his illustrations, and each page is conceived of as a whole. Lanier Graham notes:
How he was able to fuse words and images into such profoundly moving combinations, page after page, in waves of glowing color, is... [a] mystery... Very often his pages are flaming visions with the temperature of the flame reflecting the emotional condition of the subject. (p. 2)
While medieval manuscripts did not carry the integration of word and image quite this far, they did use image to elaborate on, highlight, navigate, or decorate the text. For me, Blake’s illuminated books serve as a kind of link between illuminated manuscripts and the modern artists’ book – both made by hand, but made in very different contexts.
Sources:
Graham, L., “Flaming Pages: The Illuminated Books of William Blake”, California State University, East Bay, 2006. Accessed May, 2011: class.csueastbay.edu/artgallery/ArtBrochure.pdf
