William Blake was ahead of his time, from his outrage over the treatment of poor children and black slaves to his unconventional views on religion and politics. Yet the innovation of Blake's artistic works is generally overlooked compared to that of his literary works. Perhaps this is because Blake's engaging writing style captivates readers so deeply that they often forget the importance of Blake's visual elements. Even in the study of art history, students studying the Romantic era are so preoccupied with Blake's mainstream contemporaries that they rarely analyze his works with the same level of detail. With the exception of a few enthusiasts, the general public knows Blake the poet much better than Blake the artist. Whatever the reason, the result is an unbalanced view of a multi-talented individual whose visual creations are every bit as original as his poems. Therefore, by analyzing one of Blake's most obscure works, The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun, one can gain new insight into Blake's artistic ingenuity. Whether a work of art is contemporary or as old as Blake's, it shares many common characteristics to consider when studying it. In the introduction to her art history textbook, Marilyn Stockstad writes: "The work of art historians can be divided into four types of investigation: 1. evaluation of physical properties, 2. analysis of the visual or formal structure, 3. identification of subject or object. conventional symbolism, 4. integration into the cultural context” (Stockstad, xxvii). The physical properties and formal structure of the Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun demonstrate Blake's ability to imagine a fantastical scene in astonishing detail. This watercolor shows the...... middle of paper ......Works CitedBlake, William. The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun. California. 1803-1805. Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway Brooklyn, New York 11238-6052. www.brooklynmuseum.org. Brooklyn Museum. Internet. October 19, 2010. .Hilton, Adrian, Thomas Gentils and Daniel Beresford. Virtual People: Capture 3D articulated models of individual people. Center for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing. IEE. Internet. October 19, 2010. .Revelation (also Apocalypse). www.biblos.com. Internet. October 19, 2010. .Stokstad, Marilyn. "Introduction." Introduction. History of the arts. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2008. xxvii. Print.