The Dore Illustrations for Dante’s Divine Comedy (136 Plates by Gustave Dore)

Gustave Dore’s illustrations for Dante’s Divine Comedy are an unforgettable visual journey through nightmare landscapes of eternal damnation to the very core of Hell. In The Dore Illustrations for Dante’s Divine Comedy, Dore reproduces with excellent clarity Dante Alighieri’s sublime poetic masterpiece in 135 plates of The Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise; an extraordinarily vivid and imaginative account of the poet’s allegorical journey through the afterlife. From the depths of hell onto the mountain of purgatory and up to the empyrean realms of paradise, Dore’s illustrations depict the passion and grandeur of the epic poem in such famous scenes as the embarkation of the souls for hell,Paolo and Francesca (four plates), the forest of suicides, Thais 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, including the phrase often used in a humorous sense in the illustration The Gate of Hell (plate 8), “All hope abandon, ye who enter in!” Engraver, printmaker, sculptor, and woodcut artist, Gustave Dore (1832-83) was perhaps the most successful illustrator of the nineteenth century. Dore usually drew his designs directly onto woodblocks. The Dore 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 Dore’s personal favorites. A frontispiece illustration of author Dante Alighieri is included on the 136th plate. Dover publishes an extensive collection of world-class fine art and art history books, plus an amazing variety of fine art coloring books.

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