Satan Destroying the House and its People

Artist William Blake, 1757-1827

DateLondon : William Blake, 1825 [i.e. 1826].

Mediumblack and white engraving

ClassificationsVisual Works

Credit LineGift of Henry Schnakenberg

Object number1971.2.107.1

DescriptionThe design is crowned by the figure of Satan with huge bat-like wings outspread, darkly contrasting with a flickering background of lightning and flames; his malice-brooding features are lit with reflected fire, and a rayed light encircles his head; crouching low down upon his ankles, he presses hard upon the cornices and capitals of the house where Job's family is assembled, throwing it into ruins and strewing it with seeds of fire; a panic-stricken group of men and women are huddled together on the ground beneath the devil, and are endangered by falling masonry and advancing flames; in their midst, a strong, youthful figure rises up carrying a child whom he seeks to save, but the staggering bulk of a massive pillar threatens to crush him; margin is filled with clouds of smoke, partially concealing folds of a vast serpent writing in flames behind them; a scorpion crawls at each corner

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