Satan Alarmed [or Satan Calling Forth his Legions]

This work, 'The Birth of Sin' (WD442) and 'Nymph and two satyrs' (WD443) are finished paintings for two of the engravings illustrating Boydell's edition of Milton's Poetical Works (1792-4). This particular version of 'Satan Calling Forth his Legions' illustrates Book I, line 315 of Paradise Lost, but it is not the one used for the final version of the engraving. Westall potrays Satan in the heroic style of the Romantics. The Romantics found in Milton a revolutionary ideal that George Powell, as a supporter of libertarian movements in both Iceland and France, probably empathised with