The Doré Illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy

136 Plates

Gustave Doré

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780486129938
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Artist Monographs

Gustave Doré (1832–83) was perhaps the most successful illustrator of the nineteenth century. His Doré Bible was a treasured possession in countless homes, and his best-received works continued to appear through the years in edition after edition. His illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy constitute one of his most highly regarded efforts and were Doré's personal favorites.
The present volume reproduces with excellent clarity all 135 plates that Doré produced for The Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise. From the depths of hell onto the mountain of purgatory and up to the empyrean realms of paradise, Doré's illustrations depict the passion and grandeur of Dante's masterpiece in such famous scenes as the embarkation of the souls for hell, Paolo and Francesca (four plates), the forest of suicides, Thaïs the harlot, Bertram de Born holding his severed head aloft, Ugolino (four plates), the emergence of Dante and Virgil from hell, the ascent up the mountain, the flight of the eagle, Arachne, the lustful sinners being purged in the seventh circle, the appearance of Beatrice, the planet Mercury, and the first splendors of paradise, Christ on the cross, the stairway of Saturn, the final vision of the Queen of Heaven, and many more.
Each plate is accompanied by appropriate lines from the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow translation of Dante's work.

THE INFERNO

THE FOREST

Midway upon the journey of our life / I found myself within a forest dark, / For the straightforward pathway had been lost (Inf. 1, 1–3).

THE PANTHER

And lo! almost where the ascent began, / A panther light and swift exceedingly, / Which with a spotted skin was covered o’er! (Inf.I, 31–33).

THE LION

He seemed as if against me he were coming / With head uplifted, and with ravenous hunger (Inf. I, 46, 47).

THE SHE-WOLF

“Behold the beast, for which I have turned back; / Do thou protect me from her, famous Sage” (Inf. I, 88, 89).

VIRGIL AND DANTE

Then he moved on, and I behind him followed (Inf. I, 136).

VIRGIL AND DANTE

Day was departing (Inf. II, 1).

BEATRICE AND VIRGIL

“Beatrice am I, who do bid thee go” (Inf. II, 70).

THE GATE OF HELL

“All hope abandon, ye who enter in !” (Inf. III, 9)

CHARON AND THE RIVER ACHERON

And lo! towards us coming in a boat / An old man, hoary with the hair of eld, / Crying: “Woe unto you, ye souls depraved!” (Inf. III, 82-84).

THE EMBARKATION OF THE SOULS

Charon on the demon, with the eyes of glede, / Beckoning to them, collects them all together, / Beats with his oar whoever lags behinds (Inf. III, 109–111).

LIMBO—THE INNOCENT SOULS

“Lost are we, and are only so far punished, / That without hope we live on in desire” (Inf. IV, 41, 42).

LIMBO—POETS A...

Table of contents

• DOVER BOOKS ON FINE ART
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Publisher’s Note
• THE INFERNO
• THE PURGATORIO
• THE PARADISO