The expulsion of Adam and Eve

   © Photos: Eduardo Ruigómez. Engravings: John Martin

The presentation text is taken from the documentation of the excellent edition of the exhibition John Martin, 1789 - 1854 / the visible darkness / Prints and drawings of the Campbell Collection, in the Museum of Fine Arts of Bilbao in 2006.

John Martin (1789-1854) is one of the most outstanding artists of English romanticism and one of the greatest exponents of the aesthetics of the sublime, which seeks to awaken the emotion of the viewer through the representation of the supernatural and the unbridled power of nature. He managed to capture this concept in his painting and, especially, in his engravings through the domain of the "black way", or mezotinta, technique of engraving in which from a total black the whites of the forms and objects are highlighted by precise highlights.

After a set of watercolors inspired by eighteenth-century Italian etchings of classical sights and ruins, "Types of Trees" was John Martin's first graphic series and his first illustrated book. In the second series, Vistas de Sezincot House, he focused his attention on architectural studies of the sumptuous mansion of that name and on the landscape views of its surroundings. Shortly after, the knowledge of the "black way" arose that, applied to subjects coming from the Metamorphoses of Ovidio -like the Arbor of Pafo- and of the Bible, defined his artistic personality.

The prints that John Martin made to illustrate the poem The Lost Paradise by John Milton gave him great success on the part of the public and the critics, and thus consolidated his career as an engraver. By situating epic stories in grandiose settings, he determined the meaning of the sublime in romantic art, and, on the other hand, consolidated his style, soon followed by other artists and imitators. But the culmination of his original inventiveness and architectural imagination, and one of the best examples of the sublime in romantic art, was Baltasar's feast.

In the late twenties and early thirties, he created some of his most famous works, which are considered masterpieces of the history of engraving. Among them are The Flood, which Martin considered his favorite work, The Fall of Nineveh and Satan presiding over the Council of Hell. In them, the grandeur of the stage and the dramatic play of light and shadow are achieved through an extraordinary mastery of the "black way".

In 1830 John Martin undertook the illustration of the Bible. He managed to make several prints, but the high price of the edition determined that he had to abandon this ambitious project. Perhaps for this reason, during the final period of his career he recorded many biblical themes, such as The Crucifixion, Sadak in search of the waters of oblivion or The Last Judgment.