William Blake

Behemoth and Leviathan

Behemoth and Leviathan by William Blake

Artwork Detail

God enables Job to look down on earth to view the wonders of his creation. The Behemoth is represented as a kind of hippopotamus, and represents the forces of the land. Its stylised form derives, like many other interpretations of the theme, from Durer's famous woodcut of a rhinoceros (1515), while the Leviathan is a great sea monster, not dissimilar to the serpent in Job's Evil Dream, rising out of the deep. (Monsters and Maidens, 2004)

Title
Behemoth and Leviathan
Artist/creator
William Blake
Production date
1825
Medium
engraving
Dimensions
214 x 162 mm
Credit line
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, purchased 1980
Accession no
1980/10/15
Copyright
No known copyright restrictions
Department
International Art
Display status
Not on display

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