Sketch for Satan Watching the Endearments of Adam and Eve 

Curator: This is a sketch by William Blake entitled "Satan Watching the Endearments of Adam and Eve." It’s rendered in pencil on toned paper. What strikes you about this piece? Editor: Immediately, a sense of voyeurism. There's an incompleteness, almost a clandestine quality, about the sketchiness, as though we are glimpsing something forbidden, both in subject and execution. Curator: Blake was deeply invested in Paradise Lost. He found in Milton's Satan a figure of rebellious energy, in stark contrast to conventional religious interpretations. This sketch reflects a radical reimagining of the biblical narrative through a Romantic lens, questioning power dynamics inherent in religious and social structures. Editor: Absolutely. Satan here is less a tempter, more an observer – though whether a sympathetic or predatory one is unclear. His presence brings an awareness of the gaze. What repeated symbols are being presented and how do they support an understanding of the Christian story or this unique artistic interpretation of the text? The almost dreamlike floating flower and figure icons seem significant. Curator: We need to consider Blake’s socio-political context. This was the era of the Enlightenment giving way to Romanticism, witnessing revolutions. Blake was invested in questioning authority. Viewing Satan as the observer aligns him with a challenge of divinely ordained power structures and also the burgeoning patriarchal control in society at the time. Editor: Yes, seeing the malevolence as not an outside element tempting these blissful unknowing, but as more the watcher of a beginning patriarchy allows for a critique on that very beginning, while holding both the beauty of burgeoning love with the pain of imminent human existence. The entire scene radiates pre-Fall innocence, tainted by knowledge on the edge of both action and frame. What can you feel about both of them simultaneously? Curator: It’s fascinating how Blake subverts our expectations by focusing on the intimate connection between Adam and Eve. He brings forth the genesis, literally and figuratively, in social structure terms too. This challenges any monolithic interpretation of good and evil. Editor: He's captured a timeless story and filtered it through a lens of radical individualism and burgeoning self-awareness. Curator: It remains a compelling work that continues to spark discussions on freedom, power, and the very nature of rebellion. Editor: Indeed, a truly effective sketch which makes you ask complex questions of love, governance, good, and evil, rather than leading you to answers.