Art, Symbol & Imagination
The living lights break into song
Two robed observers stand among clouds while winged figures sing and move above and beside them. The caption describes living lights growing brighter and bursting into songs that slip away from memory. In the canto this follows the silence of the eagle's beak and precedes its renewed speech about the spirits composing its eye. Doré uses individual winged bodies to present the collective music, rather than showing a literal diagram of each light in the eagle. The entry distinguishes the artist's visible company from the poem's changing forms and keeps the source caption as the binding evidence.
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Citation
Gustave Doré (design). "The living lights break into song" [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 298. Lumitheca. /gallery/image/dante-dore-297
Source details
Editorial title and description. Source details from the Library catalogue.
Full plate and printed caption individually viewed. Matching canto passage read; misplaced bindings identified by caption, not physical adjacency. Original tone and printing wear retained.
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 living lights break into song. Purgatory and Paradise: The Vision of Dante. Scan leaf 298. Lumitheca. https://lumitheca.com/gallery/image/dante-dore-297