Art, Symbol & Imagination
A Broken Branch Begins to Speak
Dante reaches into a twisted tree while Virgil stands close beside him, their pale garments contrasting with the dark, knotted branches. At Virgil’s prompting, Dante plucks a small branch and the injured trunk answers. Doré fixes the encounter at the moment when an apparently ordinary tree becomes a speaking presence, using the reaching arm to connect the traveller with the dense vegetation. The caption records the tree’s protest. The following speech concerns the soul conventionally identified as Pier delle Vigne, but the image itself centres the action of breaking and recognition. Original scan marks and the engraving’s dark tone are retained in this derivative.
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Citation
Gustave Doré (design). "A Broken Branch Begins to Speak" [editorial title]. In Dante's Inferno, Dante Alighieri. New Edition, undated supplied scan, undated edition, Thompson & Thomas. Source scan leaf 100. Lumitheca. /gallery/image/inferno-dore-93
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). A Broken Branch Begins to Speak. Dante's Inferno. Scan leaf 100. Lumitheca. https://lumitheca.com/gallery/image/inferno-dore-93