Art, Symbol & Imagination
The Children Ask Their Father for Help
A seated man and several younger figures huddle in a dim chamber beneath a narrow barred window. The adjoining account describes hunger and the children’s response to their father biting his hands in anguish. Doré groups their bodies closely and leaves much of the chamber in shadow, replacing the vast landscapes of the journey with confinement. The caption records a plea rather than a resolution. This illustration does not establish cannibalism: the poem’s final wording about grief and fasting has an ambiguity that the Gallery preserves rather than converting into an asserted event.
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Citation
Gustave Doré (design). "The Children Ask Their Father for Help" [editorial title]. In Dante's Inferno, Dante Alighieri. New Edition, undated supplied scan, undated edition, Thompson & Thomas. Source scan leaf 231. Lumitheca. /gallery/image/inferno-dore-224
Source details
Editorial title and description. Source details from the Library catalogue.
Full original plate and caption individually inspected; neighbouring canto read. Editorial title. Source tone and intrinsic damage retained; rotation applies only to Gallery derivatives.
Sources
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Dante's InfernoDante AlighieriUndated editionMore from this book
All 76 illustrations
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Cite this illustration
Gustave Doré (design). The Children Ask Their Father for Help. Dante's Inferno. Scan leaf 231. Lumitheca. https://lumitheca.com/gallery/image/inferno-dore-224