The Ancient of Days

The Ancient of Days is a design by William Blake, originally published as the frontispiece to the 1794 work Europe a Prophecy.

It draws its name from one of God's titles in the Book of Daniel and shows Urizen[1] crouching in a circular design with a cloud-like background.

[2] The British Museum notes that one copy, accessioned in 1885, was excluded from Martin Butlin's 1982 catalogue raisonné of Blake's paintings and drawings, suggesting the author doubted that attribution.

A description by Richard Thompson in John Thomas Smith's Nollekens and His Times, was of "... an uncommonly fine specimen of art, and approaches almost to the sublimity of Raffaelle or Michel Angelo", and as representing the event given in the Book of Proverbs viii.

The copy commissioned by Tatham in the last days of Blake's life, for a sum of money exceeding any previous payment for his work, was tinted by the artist while propped up in his bed.