Satan calling up his Legions

Tempera painting on canvas, Satan calling up his Legions (from John Milton's 'Paradise Lost') by William Blake (London 1757 - London 1827), circa 1805-09. Satan stands in the centre, on a rock, backed by flames. Below him, a crowned man is sitting and at left and right figures float in the flames. Below, on a molten rock, can be seen the damned. At the centre is a man with scaly thighs, clasping two huddled figures. This painting was made probably around 1805 for the Countess of Egremont, wife of the 3rd Earl and an amateur artist, as an experiment in the use of tempera on canvas. Blake described it as 'a composition for a more perfect picture afterward for a Lady of high rank' than the version now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and it is `largely painted in glasses on top of gold leaf '.CMS_PCF_486264