Art, Symbol & Imagination
Dante immersed in Lethe
A long-haired woman leans into a stream beside reeds and a wooded bank, holding the traveller beneath the water. The broad current occupies the foreground. The caption describes the lady clasping Dante’s temples and immersing him. Doré places the cleansing encounter within a natural landscape, giving a change in the traveller’s spiritual condition the tangible form of water, hands and an inclined body. The scene follows the confession before Beatrice in the Earthly Paradise.
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Citation
Gustave Doré (design). "Dante immersed in Lethe" [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 189. Lumitheca. /gallery/image/dante-dore-188
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). Dante immersed in Lethe. Purgatory and Paradise: The Vision of Dante. Scan leaf 189. Lumitheca. https://lumitheca.com/gallery/image/dante-dore-188