Blake's 'Glad Day'

The coloured print known as 'Glad Day' (P1. I2c) comes nearer perhaps than any other of Blake's designs to the freshness of the early lyrics; but with poems and print the simplicity is only on the surface, and analysis shows in both a wealth of hidden symbolism, of allusion to the work of predecessors, of philosophical ideas. Blake's imaginative power, however, enables him to put all this into a form so light and spontaneous that one can long go on enjoying it without suspecting the artist's real intention, or the complicated processes which led to the production of the work. The history of 'Glad Day' from the formal point of view is somewhat surprising. Up till now it has always been assumed to be a pure piece of invention, possibly with some reminiscence of the painter's own physical appearance.1 But a comparison of it with a figure from Scamozzi's Idea dell' Architettura Universale,2 showing the proportions of the human body (P1. 12a), leaves little doubt that Blake must have had this