Menalcas Watching Women Dance, from The Pastorals of Virgil

"Menalcas Watching Women Dance, from The Pastorals of Virgil" is a powerful wood engraving created by the English visionary William Blake (1757-1827) in 1821. This exceptional work is classified as a print, executed on off-white wove paper, showcasing Blake’s late career exploration into the demanding technique of wood engraving. These illustrations were commissioned for Robert John Thornton’s 1821 edition of Virgil's Pastorals, a project that represented a significant technical departure for an artist better known for his larger relief etchings and illuminated books.

The miniature scene depicts the shepherd Menalcas observing women dancing within a rustic, highly stylized environment, directly referencing the classical Eclogues of Virgil. Blake’s highly interpretive style transforms the traditional pastoral mode, injecting it with an intense, almost primal energy that distinguishes it from contemporary illustration practices. Although extremely small in scale, the work is characterized by dramatic contrasts of dense black line and illuminated white space, reflecting the intensive labor required by the wood engraving process. This piece captures the enduring interest in classical literature and the expressive power of line dominant among artists in early 19th-century England.

The entire series of prints produced for Thornton’s edition are considered major achievements within Blake’s later oeuvre, marking one of the final instances where the artist produced commercial illustrations. Despite initially meeting with skepticism from publishers and critics due to their primitive, highly abstract aesthetic, these illustrations are now universally celebrated in the history of printmaking. This particular impression of the work is preserved within the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, offering scholars and the public an invaluable example of 1757-1827's unique mastery of the graphic arts.