A bearded figure, arms spread, in the middle of the storm.
Bible in art · Job
The Book of Job, plate 13: Then the Lord answered Job out of the Whirlwind
William Blake · 1825
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Plate 13 of William Blake’s Job engravings (1825). After all the speeches, the LORD answers.
Blake draws the whirlwind with long sweeping curves of the burin that wrap round the whole picture, and in its centre a bearded figure with arms spread. Job and his wife look up; the friends bow to the ground. It is one of the plates where the engraved line itself makes the movement.
From the text
- “Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind” (Job 38:1)
- “Who is this who obscures My counsel by words without knowledge?” (Job 38:2)
The artist’s own
- The whirlwind drawn as one great curving sweep of lines
- The friends bowed to the ground
Details
In the whirlwind
Job and his wife
They kneel and look up, hands joined.
The friends
They bow down, faces to the ground.
Curving lines
Long engraved curves make the wind.
William Blake, British, 1757–1827. The Cleveland Museum of Art (Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Prasse Collection, 1963.303.14) · Engraving (proof impression) · Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access: Collection API record "share_license_status": "CC0" (Creative Commons Zero, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).