DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36582#0127
THE DORE GALLERY.
45
These grim warders of the gates of Hell are Sin and Death. The whole description
in Milton (of which we have only given a small part) is stupendously grand—a prodigious
instance of the creativeness of the imagination. M. Dore has realised the scene with
great power and picturesqueness ; but the figures by the gate are not the Sin and Death
of Milton. The one lacks her girdle of hell-hounds, the other his portentous blackness,
his awful vagueness of shape, his kingly crown, and his threatening dart. The figure of
Satan is good, though not sufficiently fiendish ; but the cavernous walls of Hell, the inner
recesses of gloom, and the massive, melancholy gate, are admirable.
PLATE XXIX.
D ANTE’S VISION OF LEAH.
Dante and Virgil, making their way up the last ascent of Purgatory leading to the
Terrestrial Paradise, which is situated on the summit of the mountain, are stopped in
their progress by the fall of night. Lying on the ground to sleep, Dante has a dream,
in which he beholds a beautiful female figure walking in a flowery meadow.
“ About the hour,
As I believe, when Venus from the east
First lighten’d on the mountain (she whose orb
Seems always glowing with the fire of love),
A lady young and beautiful, I dream’d,
Was passing o’er a lea; and, as she came,
Methought I saw her ever and anon
Bending to cull the flowers; and thus she sang :
‘ Know ye, whoever of my name would ask,
That I am Leah : for my brow to weave
A garland, these fair hands unwearied ply.
To please me, at the crystal mirror here,
I deck me. But my sister Rachel, she
Before her glass abides the livelong day,
Her radiant eyes beholding, charm’d no less
Than I with this delightful task : her joy
In contemplation, as in labour mine.’ ”
Purgatorio, Canto XXVII., lines 93-—109.
Michael Angelo has made two statues of these allegorical ladies—Leah, the repre-
sentative of the active, and Rachel of the contemplative life. The statues appear on
the monument of Julius II., in the church of San I ietro in Vmcolo. Fhe illustiation
here driven is one of the numerous instances of M!. Dore s unequalled power of
K
45
These grim warders of the gates of Hell are Sin and Death. The whole description
in Milton (of which we have only given a small part) is stupendously grand—a prodigious
instance of the creativeness of the imagination. M. Dore has realised the scene with
great power and picturesqueness ; but the figures by the gate are not the Sin and Death
of Milton. The one lacks her girdle of hell-hounds, the other his portentous blackness,
his awful vagueness of shape, his kingly crown, and his threatening dart. The figure of
Satan is good, though not sufficiently fiendish ; but the cavernous walls of Hell, the inner
recesses of gloom, and the massive, melancholy gate, are admirable.
PLATE XXIX.
D ANTE’S VISION OF LEAH.
Dante and Virgil, making their way up the last ascent of Purgatory leading to the
Terrestrial Paradise, which is situated on the summit of the mountain, are stopped in
their progress by the fall of night. Lying on the ground to sleep, Dante has a dream,
in which he beholds a beautiful female figure walking in a flowery meadow.
“ About the hour,
As I believe, when Venus from the east
First lighten’d on the mountain (she whose orb
Seems always glowing with the fire of love),
A lady young and beautiful, I dream’d,
Was passing o’er a lea; and, as she came,
Methought I saw her ever and anon
Bending to cull the flowers; and thus she sang :
‘ Know ye, whoever of my name would ask,
That I am Leah : for my brow to weave
A garland, these fair hands unwearied ply.
To please me, at the crystal mirror here,
I deck me. But my sister Rachel, she
Before her glass abides the livelong day,
Her radiant eyes beholding, charm’d no less
Than I with this delightful task : her joy
In contemplation, as in labour mine.’ ”
Purgatorio, Canto XXVII., lines 93-—109.
Michael Angelo has made two statues of these allegorical ladies—Leah, the repre-
sentative of the active, and Rachel of the contemplative life. The statues appear on
the monument of Julius II., in the church of San I ietro in Vmcolo. Fhe illustiation
here driven is one of the numerous instances of M!. Dore s unequalled power of
K