Art, Symbol & Imagination
Beatrice Gives Virgil His Errand
A brightly lit woman raises one hand before a robed listener, surrounded by the dark vegetation of the lower realm. Virgil recounts how Beatrice asked him to help the endangered traveller. Her illuminated face and upper body draw the eye into an otherwise sombre space. The raised hand conveys the instruction, while the listener's stance makes the scene an encounter rather than an isolated saintly portrait. The caption identifies Beatrice in her own speech. Doré visualises a reported episode within the canto: she is not physically accompanying Dante in the immediate conversation where Virgil tells this story.
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Citation
Gustave Doré (design). "Beatrice Gives Virgil His Errand" [editorial title]. In Dante's Inferno, Dante Alighieri. New Edition, undated supplied scan, undated edition, Thompson & Thomas. Source scan leaf 31. Lumitheca. /gallery/image/inferno-dore-24
Source details
Editorial title and description. Source details from the Library catalogue.
Full source plate visually inspected; original scan tone retained. Editorial title. Sideways bound plates turned upright in the derivative only; source and reader unchanged.
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Dante's InfernoDante AlighieriUndated editionMore from this book
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Gustave Doré (design). Beatrice Gives Virgil His Errand. Dante's Inferno. Scan leaf 31. Lumitheca. https://lumitheca.com/gallery/image/inferno-dore-24