A man in a fringed robe raises both arms toward the crowd.
Bible in art · Ezra
Artaxerxes Lets the Exiles Return
Gustave Doré · 1866 (designs for La Sainte Bible, Tours); this printing 1873–1874
National Library of Poland, Warsaw
This is one of Doré’s grand set pieces of ancient architecture, drawn for the 1866 Bible. Every terrace, relief and figure in the crowd had to be cut by hand into the wood block, line by line.
Terraces of a vast palace climb toward a cloudy sky, decorated with winged figures in the Assyrian style. On a stair, a man in a fringed robe lifts both arms over the huge crowd below, as if announcing a decree. Soldiers in scale armor stand by, and a giant winged statue looms at the edge.
From the text
- “Artaxerxes, king of kings” (Ezra 7:12)
- A letter given to Ezra the priest and scribe (Ezra 7:11)
- “any volunteers among the Israelites in my kingdom” may go up to Jerusalem (Ezra 7:13)
The artist’s own
- Assyrian winged figures and reliefs for a Persian court
- A public announcement to a crowd — the text speaks of a letter
- The king himself not clearly shown
Details
The proclamation
The crowd
Thousands of people fill the square below the palace.
Winged relief
A carved winged figure decorates the palace wall.
A giant statue
A colossal winged figure towers at the edge of the plate.
Gustave Doré, French, 1832–1883. National Library of Poland (Biblioteka Narodowa), Warsaw — «Pismo Święte Starego i Nowego Testamentu», vol. 1, Warsaw: M. Glücksberg, 1873 (acc. 75.267 A), tabl. 87 · Wood engraving after Gustave Doré’s design · National Library of Poland (Polona): the record of the volume gives the licence «Domena Publiczna» (Public Domain), «copyrightProtected»: false; the scan was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by the library itself («Polona Upload», GLAM-Wiki partnership: “This file was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons as part of a GLAM-Wiki partnership between the National Library of Poland and Wikimedia Polska”), linking its Polona record.