Research Into The Characteristics Of Poem And Painting Of William Blake

William Blake (1757-1827) is a famous British artist. He is well known for double identities:a poet and painter. His works always cross the interdisciplinary poem and painting gap, which builds a different artistic world containing completely the religion, mythology, the unity of poem and painting. With the comparative method of interdisciplinary study, the characteristics of poems and paintings of William Blake are researched in this thesis.The thesis includes three chapters, each having discussions from three aspects: themes, images, facial features and body movements of William Blake’s poems and paintings. It mainly analyzes the themes of resisting God, subverting Bible, opposing the religion and breaking through the traditional art.The themes of William Blake’s poems and paintings are researched in the first chapter. London, which is the urban painful fable, emphatically reflects the pain and confusion of people, the discontent and resistance to the God’s double characters of tough love and cold hypocrisy. The broken trinity of separating God from Son of Man, is reflected in Laocoon. The fight between Gods and Humans, which is also a spiritual war. is analyzed by comparing the four Gods with the leading characters in Laocoon.The images of William Blake’s poems and paintings are researched in the second chapter. The beautiful rose represents the woman who has strong feeling to control the man, while the ill rose represents the woman who is persecuted by the man. The relatively dialectical, complex and original view on women is reflected by analyzing these two kinds of roses. The critical attitude to the reason and distrust is discussed in the thesis by researching the tree, which represents the root of reason and distrust. The author asserts that the main effect of the fancy in the creation should be recovered in order to rebuild the independent and free spiritual world of the artists.The facial features and body movements of William Blake’s poems and paintings are researched in the third chapter. The terrified meaning is usually shown by the open mouth when the author shapes the facial expression. It is inconsistent to the "beauty" principle of the classic painting creation. However, it exactly reflects William Blake’s pre-romanticism inclination. The author usually sets up a seperated-legs human beside the cross-legs God. The cross-form legs setting off the human-form legs are used to mean separation from God’s shackles and establishing the Human value. It is partly inspiring for the romanticism painting creation.Finally, on the basis of the summary and review, some questions are put forward. William Blake’s poems and paintings become a bit extreme owing to the more exaggerated effect of art and fancy. The oracle creation gradually moves toward to mysticism. The artistic style is too abstruse, which is hardly understood by the common people. Meanwhile, some suggestions are put forward. It should be avoided that research just focuses on a few classical poems and paintings.The comprehensive analysis of William Blake’s poems and paintings should be focused in the later work.