William Blake's Illustrations of On The Morning of Christ's Nativity - Dating and Sequence

Dating and Sequence

The illustrations themselves do not make the dating any easier- the edges of the "Thomas set" were trimmed before sale at Sotheby's, leaving "18" or "180" on most of the sheets. Only The Night of Peace bears the full date of 1809. The Butts set is entirely undated- dates from 1803 to 1817 have been proposed for it. Behrendt argues that the Butts set predates the Thomas set by six years, and Collins Baker and R.R. Wark place it in 1809, but earlier than the Thomas set.

The sequence of the illustrations is also a topic of scholarly dispute: the mountings of the Thomas set were inscribed on their backs with numbers 1-6, but these were added during or after the 1872 Sotheby's sale, and so are unlikely to follow Blake's intended order. This "original" order ran thus:

1. The Descent of Peace
2. The Annunciation to the Shepherds
3. The Flight of Moloch
4. The Old Dragon
5. The Overthrow of Apollo and the Pagan Gods
6. The Night of Peace

Geoffrey Keynes placed them in 1-6-2-3-4-5 order, so that The Night of Peace followed The Descent of Peace, because of their similar subjects. Butlin, and nearly all subsequent scholars, have rejected this, as much commentary has centered upon Blake's use of similar images to frame the sequence. Butlin instead rearranges the "original" sequence as 1-2-4-5-3-6, moving The Flight of Moloch to second to last, so that it matches the order of corresponding verses in Milton's poem. Dunbar also follows Butlin's order. Behrendt adopts a 1-2-5-3-4-6 order, seeing a thematic progression from the destruction of classical aesthetics, to the old testament cruelty of Moloch (who resembles Blake's Urizen), to Satan himself. This order is followed by Werner in her Blake's Vision of the Poetry of Milton.