Study for the Etching 'Satan calling his Legions Hurling Defiance Toward the Vault of Heaven' - Barry, James (Irish painter, printmaker, and lithographer, 1741-1806, active in England) (The Tate Gallery, 1983)
'Barry stresses Satan's heroic qualities. In the Milton series as a whole an in this drawing in particular, Barry achieves a new level of emotional intensity. These brawny male nudes, seen from a low point of view and dramatically lit from beneath, reveal the influence of Michelangelo's figures in the Sistine Ceiling. In addition, the conception for the figure of Satan is rooted in antique sources, particularly the colossal statues of the Dioscuri or Horse Tamers on the Quirinal Hill in Rome, although Barry introduces Mannerist distortions not present in the classical modes. It was the work of his contemporary Henry Fuseli that opened his eyes to the dramatic potential of this earlier Renaissance and antique art that same moment when William Blake was also profiting greatly by Fuseli's example.' (Pressly, 107)
Keywords: Art, Irish; Drawing, Irish; Devil in art; Milton, John, 1608-1674 Characters Devil.; Milton, John, 1608-1674. Paradise lost. Book 1; Nude in art; 18th century