Satan and 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)
This print is more precise in technique than Barry's drawn study of this scene (cgjc0792). 'Tightly controlled cross-hatching and stippling having replaced the flowing lines of the earlier work. Also, in the print Barry pays increased attention to the lower foreground corners, introducing at the left the portion of a figure and at the right a more dramatic rendering of the clouds. This scene of Satan and his legions is the earliest episode that Barry depicted from 'Paradise Lost', and because it differs in size from the three other Miltonic prints, it was presumably executed first.' (Pressly, 108)
Keywords: Defiance in art; Art, Irish; Etching 18th century; Devil in art; Milton, John, 1608-1674. Paradise lost Illustrations.; Mouth of hell in art; Milton, John, 1608-1674 Characters Devil.; Milton, John, 1608-1674 Characters Soldiers.; 18th century