Art, Symbol & Imagination
The Petitioners Gather beside the Path
Two travellers stand before a scattered gathering of figures beneath a steep wooded cliff. The printed caption records the guide pointing out those who come to petition the living traveller. The canto gives these spirits requests for remembrance and prayer after violent deaths. Doré spreads the waiting people along the ground and into the trees rather than presenting a single isolated speaker. The quiet approach of the group makes the request a collective encounter. The engraving illustrates the poem's company and does not authenticate its accounts of individual deaths.
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Citation
Gustave Doré (design). "The Petitioners Gather beside the Path" [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 36. Lumitheca. /gallery/image/dante-dore-35
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.
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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). The Petitioners Gather beside the Path. Purgatory and Paradise: The Vision of Dante. Scan leaf 36. Lumitheca. https://lumitheca.com/gallery/image/dante-dore-35