Satan Smiting Job with Boils

The influential British poet and visionary artist William Blake created "Satan Smiting Job with Boils" in 1825. This highly dramatic work is an engraving executed on thin paper, forming a crucial component of the artist's final major project: a detailed portfolio illustrating the Biblical Book of Job. Produced late in Blake's life, this piece exemplifies his mature style during the period of 1801 to 1825, fusing intense spirituality with meticulous, classical draftsmanship.

The scene captures the moment of Job's profound despair, illustrating the biblical passage where Satan, having received divine permission, inflicts physical agony upon the pious man. Blake employs characteristic symmetry and muscular figures derived from Michelangelo, yet imbues them with a uniquely ethereal energy. Satan looms above, a powerful, dark angel whose influence twists the environment around him, while Job recoils below, his body covered in sores and overwhelmed by the sudden onset of affliction. Blake’s mastery of the engraving medium is evident in the dynamic contrast between light and shadow, using intricate cross-hatching to define the emotional weight and spiritual warfare central to the narrative. The composition forces the viewer to confront the extreme limits of human suffering and divine trial.

As a portfolio component, the complete set of these illustrations represents a culminating achievement in the graphic arts of the era. The intense spiritual focus of this work aligns with the Romantic sensibility prevalent in British art during the early nineteenth century. This specific engraving resides within the renowned collection of the National Gallery of Art. Due to the age of the materials, high-resolution prints of Satan Smiting Job with Boils are often available for study and reference through public domain resources, allowing wider access to Blake’s profound and visionary commentary on faith and adversity.