Art, Symbol & Imagination
Among the prostrate shades
Two standing poets step carefully through a dense company of figures lying face down. The ledge recedes beside a steep, dark drop. The printed verse describes slow movement and attention to the spirits’ lamentation. Doré builds the path from small gaps between bodies, making the travellers’ progress depend on care for the people around them. The repetition of lowered heads and outstretched forms turns the terrace’s penance into a continuous landscape.
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Citation
Gustave Doré (design). "Among the prostrate shades" [editorial title]. In Purgatory and Paradise: The Vision of Dante, Dante Alighieri; translated by Henry Francis Cary; illustrated by Gustave Doré. New edition, 1901, 1901, Thompson & Thomas. Source scan leaf 127. Lumitheca. /gallery/image/dante-dore-126
Source details
Editorial title and description. Source details from the Library catalogue.
Source plate inspected individually; printed canto and lines checked independently of binding position. Editorial title; original scan tone retained.
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Purgatory and Paradise: The Vision of DanteDante Alighieri; translated by Henry Francis Cary; illustrated by Gustave Doré1901More from this book
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Gustave Doré (design). Among the prostrate shades. Purgatory and Paradise: The Vision of Dante. Scan leaf 127. Lumitheca. https://lumitheca.com/gallery/image/dante-dore-126