Gustave Doré's illustrations of the Divine Comedy

http://www.worldofdante.org/gallery_dore.html

Gustave Doré is a French artist (1832-1883) who is known for his well-known and incredibly detailed illustrations of Dante’s inferno. By the age of 12, Doré had already started to make illustrations of not only Dante’s work, but also that of Milton, Balzac, Homer, Ossian, Byron, Goethe, Racine, and Corneille and others. Doré also illustrated an oversized edition of Edgar Allen Poe’s "The Raven," in 1883. Dore’s illustrations prove to be very accurate, very visual and very true to the images introduced to us in Inferno by Dante himself.  Doré refers to his inferno illustrations as "chefs-d'oeuvre de la literature," translating literally into masterpieces of literature. While France’s initial interest in the divine comedy was limited to certain specific cantos, Doré’s illustrations brought a much more intellectual interest of the divine comedy in France, which resulted in  “numerous translations of the Commedia into French, critical studies, newspapers, and specialized journals, and over 200 works of painting and sculpture between 1800-1930.”

Limited by the financial aspects of publication, Doré himself paid for the fist publications, which instantly became popular in France. Doré’s use of beautiful landscape, contre-passo and an incorporation of popular culture make his illustrations all so vivid. And as one critic wrote in an 1861 publication of the illustration of the inferno: "we are inclined to believe that the conception and the interpretation come from the same source, that Dante and Gustave Doré are communicating by occult and solemn conversations the secret of this Hell plowed by their souls, traveled, explored by them in every sense."

I personally felt that Doré’s illustrations are very accurate to the descriptions of the sin, the punishments and the sinners in Inferno. His use of vivid imagery and attention to detail is what makes these illustrations very remarkable. Among the illustrations on the website (above link,) there is an illustration of Charon in his boat, which makes him look very displeased, as Dante indeed describes him in Inferno. Another illustration is that of Limbo, where we see all the enlighten poets and we can clearly see that Doré puts them in a spotlight by literally shining the light on them, while everything around them is in the dark. We see Paolo and Francesca in another illustration and we can clearly see the sin of lust being portrayed in the illustration, with Francesca sitting on a throne and Paolo kissing her neck, with Francesca’s husband spying on them in the back.  Thus, I believe that Doré’s illustrations depict the divine comedy beautifully in a very vivid manner, and are definitely worth to look at.