Art, Symbol & Imagination
Buonconte’s Body in the Storm
A recumbent armoured body lies beside surging water beneath a black storm front. A pale airborne figure crosses the distant break in the cloud while a dark winged presence occupies the nearer rock. The Purgatory V caption refers to releasing crossed arms from the breast. Doré makes the body the meeting point of physical weather and the poem's supernatural contest. Water, cloud and wings all carry movement around the still figure. The opposing areas of light and darkness keep the scene from becoming merely a landscape of bad weather, while the grounded body gives its cosmic drama an immediate human centre.
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Citation
Gustave Doré (design). "Buonconte’s Body in the Storm" [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 45. Lumitheca. /gallery/image/dante-dore-44
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.
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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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Cite this illustration
Gustave Doré (design). Buonconte’s Body in the Storm. Purgatory and Paradise: The Vision of Dante. Scan leaf 45. Lumitheca. https://lumitheca.com/gallery/image/dante-dore-44