Art, Symbol & Imagination
The Fugitives Race through the Thorn Wood
Two unclothed figures run between pale twisting trunks, one reaching backward while the other follows through a forest crowded with angular branches. A sudden rush interrupts the poets’ conversation with the speaking tree. The source names the two fleeing figures Lano and Giacomo and describes the black hounds pursuing them. Doré makes the running bodies and bent branches form a single energetic pattern, with little clear space ahead. The caption gives the foremost fugitive’s desperate cry. The plate illustrates a distinct episode within the wood; it should not be confused with Dante’s earlier lost forest, whose travellers were clothed and seeking a way onward.
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Citation
Gustave Doré (design). "The Fugitives Race through the Thorn Wood" [editorial title]. In Dante's Inferno, Dante Alighieri. New Edition, undated supplied scan, undated edition, Thompson & Thomas. Source scan leaf 109. Lumitheca. /gallery/image/inferno-dore-102
Source details
Editorial title and description. Source details from the Library catalogue.
Full original plate and caption visually inspected. Editorial title; original scan tone and intrinsic damage retained. Sideways plates rotated in the Gallery derivative only.
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Gustave Doré (design). The Fugitives Race through the Thorn Wood. Dante's Inferno. Scan leaf 109. Lumitheca. https://lumitheca.com/gallery/image/inferno-dore-102