Albion Rose

This plate was once part of the Large Book of Designs that William Blake printed in 1796 for the miniature painter Ozias Humphry. In the mythology of Blake, Albion is the primeval man whose fall and division results in the Four Zoas: Urizen, Tharmas, Luvah/Orc, and Urthona/Los. The name derives from the ancient and mythological name of Britain, Albion. In the mythical story of the founding of Britain, Albion was a Giant son of Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. He was a contemporary of Heracles, who killed him. Albion founded a country on the island and ruled there. Britain, then called Albion after its founder, was inhabited by his Giant descendants until about 1100 years before Julius Cæsar's invasion of Britain, when Brutus of Troy came and defeated the small number of Giants that remained (as a group of the Giants had killed all the others).

Here Albion, a personification of humanity and of Britain, is freeing himself from the shackles of materialism.

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P.S. Did you know that Blake created iconic Biblical illustrations? Here is his most famous Red Dragon that found its way not only to a museum but also to pop culture!