‘Pity, like a naked newborn babe, striding the blast, or heaven’s cherubim horsed, upon the sightless couriers of the air, shall blow the horrid deed in every eye.’ These lines from scene 7, act 1 of Macbeth inspired William Blake to create this obsessively worked monoprint, a style he called his frescos. In this uniquely personal form of printmaking, Blake began with relief etching, then applied oil or tempera mixed with chalk, and finally finished by hand with a pen. Blake illustrated many scenes by Shakespeare and Milton, creating a strangely cohesive world of ghostly figures and supernatural ritual.
