Art, Symbol & Imagination
The three women beside the water
Three draped women stand close together at the edge of a shallow woodland stream. One turns towards the viewer while the other two look or gesture across the clearing. The Purgatory XXIX caption distinguishes their appearances through red, emerald and snow-white imagery, which the engraving conveys through differing tones and folds. Doré gives the allegorical company a shared bodily presence instead of isolating each figure as a separate emblem. The stream and surrounding plants hold them within the unfolding pageant. Their contrasting directions of attention keep the group poised between stillness and the next movement.
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Citation
Gustave Doré (design). "The three women beside the water" [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 179. Lumitheca. /gallery/image/dante-dore-178
Source details
Editorial title and description. Source details from the Library catalogue.
Original source design and caption inspected; composition retained with scan margins trimmed. No reconstructed or recoloured details.
Sources
From the book
Purgatory and Paradise: The Vision of DanteDante Alighieri; translated by Henry Francis Cary; illustrated by Gustave Doré1901More from this book
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Cite this illustration
Gustave Doré (design). The three women beside the water. Purgatory and Paradise: The Vision of Dante. Scan leaf 179. Lumitheca. https://lumitheca.com/gallery/image/dante-dore-178