The Beast Riseth Out of the Sea,

1797

Part of a commission for the English eccentric William Beckford’s Revelation Chamber at Fonthill Abbey, his fantastic Gothic Revival folly in Wiltshire, these richly developed oil sketches are—as the arched shape of one suggests—likely studies for stained-glass windows. Each illustrates a passage from the New Testament’s apocalyptic Book of Revelation, in which God vanquishes the powers of evil and ushers in a righteous messianic kingdom. Beckford’s fabulous wealth derived from several Jamaican sugar plantations, at which three thousand people were enslaved. He paid West a substantial retainer to assist his designs for Fonthill, including the planned Chamber, with walls five feet thick, in order to receive his family’s coffins. However, the chamber disappeared from Beckford’s evolving plans, and Fonthill Abbey, declared finished in 1813, was demolished following the third collapse of its hastily constructed three-hundred-foot tower.