The Deep

This works illustrates a scene from Milton’s epic ‘Paradise Lost’ in which the main character Satan flees the abyss of hell without an answer from Chaos. Satan, at top left, is taken from a Henry Fuseli painting of the same subject (c.1796). Just as in Milton’s pros, Satan is portrayed here as a hero by Fuseli, but Lowe has chosen the character Chaos to be the main protagonist in his reinterpretation. Chaos is personified as a brazen male nude inspired by Anthony van Dyck’s ‘St Martin dividing his Cloak,’ (c.1620). The non-local colors and the figure’s posture are meant to convey anguish and despair.