Satan (?)

Satan from around 1822 by John Martin depicts the fallen angel from Milton's Paradise Lost, a text that profoundly influenced the painter's apocalyptic vision. Martin's illustrations for Milton helped establish his reputation as the painter of the sublime and terrible. Martin's technique involved meticulous architectural planning of his vast compositional schemes, using perspective rulers and careful underdrawing before building up his luminous skies with thin glazes of oil color.

The figure of Satan is rendered with the dramatic lighting and vast spatial context that characterized Martin's approach to supernatural subjects.