MWW Gallery of the Day (7/28/20)
Doré Illustrations II: The Bible
The Museum Without Walls/Le Musée Imaginaire
在 Doré Illustrations II: The Bible 相簿中新增了 244 張相片。
In the Western World, which has seen many books come and go over the last two millennia, there is one which can claim to stand head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to cultural pedigree and artistic influence -- the Christian Bible. Its very name is derived from the Greek word for "books." It was the first to come off Gutenburg's printing press, and in the 563 years since has been reprinted, re-issued in new editions, and translated and re-translated into more languages than any other book. The stories it contains have been depicted in more works of art than any human could possible view in a lifetime. And, not surprisingly, more illustrated editions of it have been published than any other book in history. Here, we present the complete set of the most celebrated of all Bible illustrations, those by the French artist Gustave Doré (1832-1883).
Doré had already achieved considerable success as an illustrator of works by Byron, Shakespeare and Cervantes, when he was commissioned by French and English publishers to do a series of wood engravings to adorn "La Grande Bible de Tours," a large folio edition published in two volumes simultaneously by Mame in Tours, France and by Cassell and Company in England in 1866. The 241 that he executed not only secured his reputation as France's foremost illustrator, but also set him on the path which would lead him to being proclaimed the greatest of all time.
This series of illustrations comprises 139 plates depicting scenes from the Old Testament, 21 from the Apocrypha (deuterocanonical books), and 81 from the New Testament. One will, of course, find none illustrating passages from the more prosaic biblical books like Deuteronomy or Leviticus, nor even any from the poetical Psalms or didactic Epistles of Paul. Almost all of them illustrate oft-depicted dramatic scenes from Genesis, Exodus, the Four Gospels, the Book of Revelation, and the like. To give the non-biblical scholar the necessary context to appreciate each picture, we have included the relevant biblical text from the 1769 King James Version in the commentary section. (You will have to click "See More" to access these.)
See also this previous MWW gallery devoted to this artist:
* Doré Illustrations I: Coleridge, Cervantes, Poe
Future MWW Doré galleries will present his illustrations for Dante's "Divina Commedia," Milton's "Paradise Lost," works by Shakespeare, Rabelais, Tennyson, Charles Perrault and others.
