Sir John Baptist Medina or John Baptiste de Medina was an artist of Flemish-Spanish origin who worked in England and Scotland, mostly as a portrait painter, though he was also the first illustrator of Paradise Lost by John Milton in 1688.
Self Portrait, or The Portrait Painter (c. 1698). Oil on canvas, 77.2 × 63.5 cm. In the collection of the National Galleries of Scotland.
The vault of Sir John Medina, Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh
Book 1: Satan Rousing the Rebel Angels. Anonymous artist, possibly Henry Aldrich.
Book 2: Satan, Sin, and Death. Anonymous artist, possibly Henry Aldrich.
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, arranged into twelve books with minor revisions throughout. It is considered to be Milton's masterpiece, and it helped solidify his reputation as one of the greatest English poets of all time. The poem concerns the biblical story of the fall of man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden.
Title page of the first edition (1667)
Image extracted from page 362 of The Poetical Works of John Milton. Containing Paradise Lost. Paradise Regained. Samson Agonistes, and his Poems on several occasions, by Milton, John, Michael Burghers (1695).
Milton Dictating to His Daughter, Henry Fuseli (1794)
Gustave Doré, The Heavenly Hosts, c. 1866, illustration to Paradise Lost.
