The Pandaemonium - John Martin
Description
Satan, standing in the right foreground, creates with a breath a palace for all demons, the pandemonium (the word is a Milton invention). We can make out the demons below, in the glowing lava. John Martin had produced two engravings (in 1824 and 1831) illustrating this scene, which he reproduces here, with modifications. The frame, decorated with snakes and dragons, was designed by Martin himself. The Pandemonium has a counterpart, The Celestial City, also exhibited in 1841 at the Royal Academy, no. 428.
2. When exhibited at the Royal Academy, the painting was accompanied by the following verses:
Anon out of the earth a fabric huge
Rose like and exhalation, with the sound
Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet,
Built like a temple, here pilasters round
Were set, and Doric pillars overlaid
with golden architrave. (Paradise Lost, I, 710-5)
Suddenly an immense edifice rose from the earth, like an exhalation, to the sound of a charming symphony and sweet voices: edifice built like a temple, where all around were set pilasters and Doric columns overlaid
with golden architrave.
Technical Data
Notice #025009