Part 7: Border Clues

The border of Blake's Laocoön provides additional clues as to the compositional order of the engraving's remaining inscriptions.

The distance from the border to "The Old & New Testaments [. . .]" and "Christianity is Art" is slightly less than in the case of the outer inscriptions mentioned in Part 4. It may have been in order to redress the balance that Blake began to add inscriptions beyond those provisional textual boundaries.

For example, it was probably around the same time that Blake inscribed "Christianity is Art / & not Money" to the right of the plinth that he introduced "Israel deliverd from Egypt / is Art deliverd from / Nature" to the left of the plinth, since the two inscriptions act in balance. "Israel deliverd from Egypt [. . .]", however, extends towards the framing border further than the inscription regarding "The Eternal Body of Man [. . .]". From this, we can infer that, at some point after engraving "The Eternal Body of Man [. . .]", Blake decided to extend his textual inscriptions further to the left all the way down that side. (See figure 7a.)

Blake may have planned to add just one extra line to the left of "The Eternal Body of Man [. . .]", a line that would run alongside "Israel deliverd from Egypt". This is not what happened, however. Instead, he engraved the two lines concerning "A Poet a Painter a Musician an Architect [. . .]" and the four statements equating practices of worship with those of art, to the extreme left of the plate, crammed up against the bordering line. The words "Spiritual War" at the base of the plate and to the left of "Israel deliverd from Egypt [. . .]" keeps the new balance to this side of the engraving.

Unlike the areas to the right of the statue, there are no horizontal or wavy lines to the statue's left. It seems likely that, had Blake laid out plans for the inscriptions in advance, he would have made the two sides more consistent in this respect. That inconsistency and the squeezing of lines towards the left-hand border are strong indications that Blake did not start adding inscriptions to this plate with a coherent plan. Rather, it seems, he added inscriptions and extended the bounds of the engraving as his thoughts developed. (See figure 7b.)

The extension of the textual boundary to the left of the plate are echoed by what appear to be similar extensions of the textual boundary to the bottom and right of the engraving. "Art Degraded Imagination Denied War Governed the Nations" is fitted between "יה & his two Sons Satan & Adam as they were copied from the Cherubim / of Solomons Temple and applied to Natural Fact. or History of Ilium" and the bottom margin. (See figure 7c.)

The order to the right-hand side of the plate is slightly more complicated. The words "Jesus & his Apostles & Disciples were all Artists Their Works were destroyd by the Seven Angels of the Seven Churches in Asia" begin comfortably positioned between "The Old & New Testaments are" and the right-hand border. "What we call Antique Gems" and "Christianity is Art", however, are slightly further left of the border than "The Old & New Testaments are". This means there is more room between the right-hand border and "What we call Antique Gems" / "Christianity is Art". Without Blake having angled the end of the outer line (from "by the Seven Angels") further towards the border, however, Blake could not have squeezed in the line "The unproductive Man is not a Christian much less the Destroyer". He did do this and hence the line fits. (See figure 7d.)