Los Entering the Grave
by BLAKE, William, Etching with pen, watercolour and gold, 220 x 160 mm
This is the frontispiece of the illustrated poem Jerusalem.
In the coloured version of the frontispiece to his Jerusalem, Blake placed the thorns of the Passion beneath his own personification, Los, as he steps bravely through a door into a dark, grave-like void. This is not an end but the beginning: Los has embarked on an adventure, one hand raised in greeting and the other holding a blazing sun to illuminate the truths to be revealed in the following pages.