THE CAR FOLLOWING THE SEVEN CANDLESTICKS

BY WILLIAM BLAKE

This halftone reproduction of a drawing by Blake for Dante’s Divine Comedy is in landscape orientation. The image shows a forest with a river flowing through diagonally across from the bottom left corner to the top right corner. There are figures on both sides of the river looking towards each other. On the far side of the river is a large menorah-like candle holder that contains seven flames with a procession of people following behind. The river is identified in the accompanying essay as the river Lethe (p. 36): a river in the underworld from Greek mythology. The river starts in the bottom left corner in the foreground. It flows to the right and curves back to the left, then back to the right, and then left once more before ending by veering to the right about two-thirds up the height of the image. There are flames reflected in the water in the first part of the river from the candlesticks on the far side of the river. The rest of the foreground is filled with grass and leaves. On the right side there are two trees extending most of the height of the image. Foliage is visible only in the top fifth of the page. The foliage forms the top edge of the image, increased by leaves from another identical tree on the far side of the river. On the closer side of the river, and to the right, two figures stand between the two tree trunks. The figures are facing diagonally towards the top left corner.. The figures are wearing plain long-sleeve tops and bottoms, with light coloured short hair. The figure to the right has their hands clasped together in front of them, visible from the viewer’s diagonal view. There is another figure on the same side of the river, standing right at the river’s edge near to the centre of the page. This figure also faces diagonally towards the top left corner of the page. This figure’s arms are bent up with the hands near the height of the chin. Directly across the river from this figure is another figure. This figure is wearing a light coloured robe and has their left arm bent up at the elbow, with their palm lifted up to the sky. To the left is the huge candlestick holder with two other figures flanking it on either side. The candlestick holder takes up about a third of the image height. The holder has seven candles in ascending and mirrored heights. The figures on either side have their inside arm lifted up towards the candle holder. There is a cloud-like substance wrapped in a circle around the base of the candle holder and extending out and to the right along the riverbank. There is one tree to the left of the figures and candle holder, and this tree has leaves that extend out to the right to add to the top edge of the image’s foliage. Behind and trailing to the right side of the candle holder along the riverbank is a long line of people in a procession. The line of people is broken up in the middle, and at about the centre of the upper third of the page, by the car with Beatrice inside of it. The car looks like an altar made of two tall claws facing each other with a figure standing in the middle. There is a griffin standing in front of the car in the line, looking attached to the car. The griffin has a beak and lightly sketched talons. There is a sphere sitting below the claws as the base of the car. In the foreground of the sphere are three figures with their backs to the viewer. The figures have their hands linked and lifted horizontally. There appears to be some fire shooting out from the back of the car. To the right of the fire is the rest of the line of people in the procession, sketched only in outline and continuing on until they reach the last quarter of the image width. Behind the procession in the background appears the sky, which is formed by some lightly sketched shading. The image is bordered with a single-edged line. In the centre of the bottom edge there is the text: “P_go Canto 29”.

MLA citation:

Blake, William. “The Car Following the Seven Candlesticks.” The Savoy, vol. 5, September 1896, p. 37. The Savoy Digital Edition, edited by Christopher Keep and Lorraine Janzen Kooistra 2018-2019. Yellow Nineties 2.0, Ryerson University Centre for Digital Humanities, 2019, https://1890s.ca/savoyv5_blake_candlesticks/

magazine_images The Savoy 5 The Car Following the Seven Candlesticks William Blake John Linnell Drawing Paul Naumann

“P_go Canto 29”

Candle, Candlestick holder, Cloud, Griffin, Foliage, and Flames Human Figure, Female Figure/ Woman, Male Figure/ Man, and Beatrice Day, River/stream, Woods/ forest, Trees, Underworld, and Lethe