The Book of Job: Pl. 16, Thou hast fulfilled the Judgment of the Wicked

"The Book of Job: Pl. 16, Thou hast fulfilled the Judgment of the Wicked" by William Blake is one of the celebrated suite of twenty-one engravings created to illustrate the biblical Book of Job. Executed in 1825, this work belongs to the series widely regarded as the culmination of Blake's remarkable career as a printmaker and visionary artist. As a central figure in the cultural history of the United Kingdom, Blake applied his unique spiritual and highly stylized approach to this classic narrative of profound suffering and eventual redemption. The classification of the piece as an engraving speaks to the meticulous skill required for the medium and the desired permanence and dissemination of the images.

In Thou hast fulfilled the Judgment of the Wicked, Blake depicts a scene of overwhelming divine power and mortal despair. The composition illustrates the moment of Job's punishment, often interpreted as the consequence of his misguided "comforters." Blake employs his distinctive linear style, which contrasts the dynamic, swirling forms of the divine or demonic entities with the rigid, suffering figure of Job below. The intricate detail achieved through the engraving medium highlights Blake’s commitment to precision and symbolic complexity. This print technique allowed him to achieve stark contrasts between light and shadow, emphasizing the spiritual drama inherent in the scene.

This specific impression of the print, dating from 1825, demonstrates the powerful visual rhetoric Blake utilized throughout the entire series. The work is held in the prestigious collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, where it serves as a crucial example of Romantic-era British printmaking. Due to the age and prominence of this influential series, high-resolution prints and images of Blake's The Book of Job are frequently utilized in educational and scholarly contexts today, often made available through public domain initiatives.