Art, Symbol & Imagination
Satan Crosses Chaos
The figure’s limbs and wings work against a landscape that offers no stable road. Rock, empty distance and disturbed atmosphere make the passage seem improvised at every point. Milton’s caption gathers the traveller’s means of movement into heads, hands, wings and feet, and Doré gives that restless inventory a visible shape. The plate belongs to Satan’s journey through Chaos between Hell and the created world. Its uneven space distinguishes this crossing from both the ordered councils and the sheltered landscapes encountered elsewhere in the poem.
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Citation
Gustave Doré (design). "Satan Crosses Chaos" [editorial title]. In Paradise Lost: Illustrated by Gustave Doré, John Milton; illustrated by Gustave Doré; edited by Henry C. Walsh. Undated John W. Lovell Company edition; exact publication year unverified, undated edition, John W. Lovell Company. Source scan leaf 75. Lumitheca. /gallery/image/milton-dore-74
Source details
Editorial title and description. Source details from the Library catalogue.
Full source plate, printed verse caption and surrounding poem reviewed. Editorial title; original scan tonality retained. Over-dark plates excluded.
Sources
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Paradise Lost: Illustrated by Gustave DoréJohn Milton; illustrated by Gustave Doré; edited by Henry C. WalshUndated editionMore from this book
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Gustave Doré (design). Satan Crosses Chaos. Paradise Lost: Illustrated by Gustave Doré. Scan leaf 75. Lumitheca. https://lumitheca.com/gallery/image/milton-dore-74