2. What parts of the story of Nebuchadnezzar has Blake put into his PRINT? (The eagle-feather hair, the talon nails, crawling on all fours like an ox.)
3. Does the figure of Nebuchadnezzar look more like a man or a beast? (No right answer.) Which features are manlike? (Body structure and skin, facial features such as eyes, nose, mouth.)Which features are beastlike?(Hair, including facial hair, eagle talons on hands, crouched body posture and position of head seem unnatural for an upright human.)
4. How has the artist made Nebuchadnezzar look strong? (Very muscular body.) How has he made Nebuchadnezzar look weak or afraid? (Facial expression, body posture.)
5. Describe the colors and lines Blake used throughout this PRINT. How do his choices of color and line associate the human figure with the surrounding landscape? (Same colors used for figure and landscape. The quality of lines: thickness, length, repeated lines that make up patterns, curves and direction of lines are similar in the figure and the landscape.)
2. Every story has a beginning, a climax, and a resolution. What part of the story did Blake choose to represent in his PRINT? (His punishment.) How would Nebuchadnezzar look different if Blake had shown us the beginning of the story? (No right answer.)
3. Blake believed that imagination and emotion are important aspects of art and life. Why do you think the story of Nebuchadnezzar interested Blake? (No right answer.)
4. In Blake's 18th-century England, Sir Isaac Newton and his mathematic and scientific discoveries were hailed as the epitome of reason. However, Blake believed that imagination and emotion were the most important aspects of human nature. If you wanted to choose people to represent the values of reason and emotion today, who would you choose? Why? (Scientists, inventors, teachers might represent reason. Artists, performers, religious leaders might represent emotion.) Can you think of people who might represent both? (Most people, including those groups listed above, lead lives in which reason, imagination, and emotion play equally important parts.)