Art, Symbol & Imagination
The Nativity
A mother and child rest low in a stable while an elderly man and visiting figures gather around them. Doré uses the rough beam overhead to enclose the company without turning the setting into a palace. Attention moves towards the small infant through inclined heads and bent bodies. The caption identifies the Nativity. The image gives a sacred beginning an ordinary material setting, with animals, straw and shelter forming the close world around a gathering whose importance exceeds its visible size.
Read the source pageLoading your collection…
Citation
Gustave Doré (design). "The Nativity" [editorial title]. In The Bible Gallery, Gustave Dore; Talbot W. Chambers. Undated Cassell & Company edition; one hundred illustrations with supplied descriptive letterpress, undated edition, Cassell & Company, Limited. Source scan leaf 237. Lumitheca. /gallery/image/bible-dore-236
Source details
Editorial title and description. Source details from the Library catalogue.
Complete plate reviewed against the scan; printed caption supplies subject. Crop excludes surrounding paper and separate caption without changing scan tone. Letterpress theology is not adopted as historical proof.
Sources
From the book
The Bible GalleryGustave Dore; Talbot W. ChambersUndated editionMore from this book
All 98 illustrations
Related illustrations
Cite this illustration
Gustave Doré (design). The Nativity. The Bible Gallery. Scan leaf 237. Lumitheca. https://lumitheca.com/gallery/image/bible-dore-236