John Martin's Illustrations of Milton's Paradise Lost

Satan Presiding at the Infernal Council

 

Pandemonium

 

The Conflict between Satan and Death

 

Satan Contemplating Adam and Eve in Paradise

 

Eve's Dream - Satan Aroused

 

Satan Arousing the Fallen Angels

 

Part of a series of 48 mezzotint engravings that British artist John Martin created between 1823 and 1827 to illustrate a new edition of Milton's Paradise Lost.

 

The engraving of Satan Presiding at the Infernal Council illustrates the debate among Satan's "Stygian Council" in the council-chamber of Pandæmonium at the beginning of Book II of Paradise Lost. In the engraving, Satan is depicted enthroned at the heart of the hall of his Palace of Pandæmonium, at the centre of a rotunda filled with onlooking throngs of fallen angels, illuminated by the new technology of gaslight. His throne is placed atop a black hemisphere.