A figure in a white robe with a halo floats upward, bright against the grey sky.
Bible in art · Mark
The Ascension
Gustave Doré · 1866 (designs for La Sainte Bible, Tours); this printing 1873–1874
National Library of Poland, Warsaw
Doré drew this scene for «La Sainte Bible», published by Alfred Mame in Tours in 1866, and A. Ligny cut it into a block of end-grain wood. This copy is from the Polish edition of 1873–1874, now in the National Library of Poland.
Almost the whole sheet is empty grey sky. High up, a figure in a white robe with a halo rises, glowing against it. On the dark hilltop below, the disciples look up, kneel or stretch out their arms; far off, a strip of water shines.
From the text
- “After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them” (Mark 16:19)
- “He was taken up into heaven” (Mark 16:19)
The artist’s own
- The rising figure shines with its own light, and there is no cloud — Acts 1:9 tells of a cloud that hid Him from sight
- A bare hilltop with a view of distant water, as the scene is placed in Acts 1:12 on the Mount of Olives
- Most of the disciples seen from behind, so that we look up with them
Details
The rising figure
Pointing up
A bearded disciple stretches his arm toward the sky.
Seen from behind
Wrapped in dark cloaks, these disciples kneel on the slope and look up.
Distant water
A pale strip of water gleams beyond the hills.
Gustave Doré, French, 1832–1883. National Library of Poland (Biblioteka Narodowa), Warsaw — «Pismo Święte Starego i Nowego Testamentu», vol. 2, Warsaw: M. Glücksberg, 1874 (acc. 75.267 A) · 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.