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Doré, Gustave - Paradiso Canto 31

Dorè Gustave Dorè's The White Rose (1861) is just one of the illustrations contained in his collection illustrating The Divine Comedy. The inspiration for the illustration is Dante Alligheri’s Divine Comedy, which tells the story of Dante the Pilgrim and his journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. Doré’s illustration is a detailed black and white colored lithograph from Paradiso, which was published in conjunction with his illustrations of Purgatorio.

Dorè's Background

Doré got his start in the mid 1800s as a caricaturist, and it is apparent that the attention fine detail that Doré developed in this line of work was later incorporated into his detailed illustrations of the Divine Comedy. He planned to illustrate the entire comedy in 1855, and referred to it as “chefs-d'oeuvre de la littérature”, or the masterpieces of literature, and he set out to become the illustrator of great poets. Many people were critical of Doré because he did not have any formal training, and he could not find anyone to sponsor his publication of the Divine Comedy, so he paid to publish Inferno himself in 1861. His illustrations of the Inferno became wildly popular, so under Hatchett publishing, Doré then published his illustrations of Purgatorio and Paradiso at the same time, which is where the White Rose originates. It is partially due to this widespread fame and popular acclaim that Doré’s work has often been referred to as “lowbrow” or not suited for academic purposes, and the illustrations have not often been formally analyzed in conjunction with the text.

The White Rose

It is said that Doré’s beginning as a caricaturist is reflected in his attention to fine detail in his illustrations of the Divine Comedy, and this is very true for the White Rose. Although it is true that the piece does not contain detailed facial or bodily features like that contained within a caricature, the piece does contain a significant amount of chaos. Doré managed to clearly define most of the blessed and winged beings within the celestial rose, giving each one just enough detail that the viewer can discern that each body is different, yet not too much, so that one large chaotic body is perceived. The bodies are arranged in a circle, and are centered around the Primum Mobil, or light of God at the center. Doré manages to combine the chaos or motion of the winged figures with the crisp circles that they form to contribute to a feeling of peace or resolution in the image, an idea that makes perfect sense when one remembers that this is meant to describe Canto 30, one of the last Cantos in the entire Divine Comedy, after Dante has already been to hell and back. Doré reflected the peace and resolution that Dante had felt after undergoing this journey, in his illustration of the White Rose. Doré also placed a great significance in the illustration on Dante’s vision of Primum Mobil, which is the single ray of light with which God uses to light the entire Universe, represented as a crisp, white orb in the illustration, its clarity only matched by the two darkly defined figures that gaze upon it. These figures are Beatrice and Dante, and they are placed there to grab the attention of the viewer. The orb is placed in front of them and they gaze upon it, as God as the attention of the divine winged beings and the mortals alike. The two mortal beings are darkly represented and clearly defined because they represent reality, while the winged beings are lightly shaded and blurry because they are divine and reside permanently in heaved. Primus Mobil is the bridge between these two worlds, as it is clearly defined like the mortals who gaze upon it, but also light like the divine beings it resides amongst. It is in the observation of all these details that it can be understood why Doré was considered such a master of detail, and why he was often criticized for depicting illustrations too literally, yet it is his thematic fidelity that really allows for so much to be drawn from this illustration.

Reception

The White Rose actually works in a different direction of much of what Doré was known for in the rest of his Inferno illustrations. J.R. Thompson claimed that Doré is to art, what Dante was to poetry “dilineators of the horrible and revolting.”This is true for most of his illustrations of the Inferno, because the scenes that Dante himself depicted were inherently horrifying: the gluttonous rolling around in mud for eternity or the famous heretics forever burning in gray sarcophagi, yet the White Rose focuses on a different part of Dante’s work, one more of beauty rather than horror.

References

Audeh, Aida. Gustave Doré’s Illustrations for Dante’s Divine Comedy: Influence, Innovation, and Reception. Studies in Medievalism 18 (2010): 125-164.

Alighieri, Dante. Paradiso.

Cole, William. “Literal Art? A new look at Doré’s illustrations for Dante’s Inferno.” Word and Image 10, no. 2 (Spring 1994): 95-106.

Doré, Gustave (French printmaker, painter, and sculptor, 1832-1883). 1868. Le Purgatoire [et le Paradis] de Dante Alighieri. engravings (prints). Place: Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library: Fiske Dante Collection. http://library.artstor.org.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/asset/SS33624_33624_33393594.

“Gustave Doré.” World of Dante. http://www.worldofdante.org/gallery_dore.html

Rossiter, Caroline. “Man of Mystery.” Apollo: The International Magazine for Collectors 179, no. 619 (Spring 2014): 95-97.

Thompson, J.R. “Doré’s Dante.” The Aldine Press 3, no. 8 (August 1870): 85.