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Daniel, Gustave Doré

Bible in art · Daniel

Daniel

Gustave Doré · 1866 (designs for La Sainte Bible, Tours); this printing 1873–1874
National Library of Poland, Warsaw

This plate opens the Book of Daniel in Doré’s Bible. It was engraved by C. Laplante; the copy shown here is from the Warsaw edition of 1873–1874, which used the Wujek translation, and is kept in the National Library of Poland.

Young Daniel, bearded and in a striped mantle, stands with his hand on an unrolled scroll laid across a stone. Behind him men walk or rest on the steps of a huge stepped building, and beyond them light falls on a broad river. Daniel’s figure stays dark against the bright sky.

From the text

  • The king had young men brought “from the royal family and the nobility” (Daniel 1:3)
  • They were to learn “the language and literature of the Chaldeans” (Daniel 1:4)
  • Among them were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (Daniel 1:6)

The artist’s own

  • A stepped tower like a Mesopotamian temple tower behind the figures
  • A wide river and a distant shore, Doré’s picture of Babylon’s landscape
  • Daniel alone in front with a scroll; his three companions are not singled out

Details

Daniel

A young bearded man looks down, deep in thought.

The scroll

An unrolled scroll lies across a block of stone under his hand.

The stepped building

Huge terraces rise one above another at the right.

A seated figure

Someone sits on the steps, chin in hand.

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.