Bellany only began to experiment with printmaking when he started teaching at Winchester College of Art, in 1969. Norman Ackroyd, who taught printmaking at the college and shared a studio with Bellany, noted: “He was an obvious etcher because there was so much drawing in his painting... he is a very spontaneous painter and etching is a spontaneous medium”. This is one of a series of prints Bellany made in 1970, when he was beginning to explore the potential of etching. Here Bellany reflects on his Calvinist demonology. John Knox, the leader of the Protestant Reformation, lies on his death bed as skeletal figures of death emerge from the darkness behind. The intense shadow cast by Knox implies a strong light, as if he is about to pass to the other side.