She sits in the middle, her face turned up to the sky.
Bible in art · Judges
Jephthah's Daughter with Her Companions
Gustave Doré · 1866 (designs for La Sainte Bible, Tours); this printing 1873–1874
National Library of Poland, Warsaw
A wide plate, one of the quietest in Doré’s Bible of 1866. The engraver signed it in a quick flourish at the bottom right, Doré at the left; between them almost everything is soft grey sky and grass.
On a grassy hilltop Jephthah’s daughter sits among her friends, looking up at the sky while one of them leans her face against her shoulder. The others sit apart, hooded and silent; one lies back against a rock. A low sun breaks through long bands of cloud over a distant plain.
From the text
- “Let me wander for two months through the mountains with my friends” (Judges 11:37)
- “Go,” he said, and sent her away for two months (Judges 11:38)
- She mourned with her friends upon the mountains (Judges 11:38)
The artist’s own
- No wandering — the group rests on a single hilltop
- Long loose hair and robes like those in classical paintings
- The evening sky with its long streaks of light
Details
Jephthah’s daughter
A friend’s embrace
A companion with long hair rests her head on her shoulder.
Resting
One friend lies back against a rock, her eyes closed.
Alone
A hooded woman sits apart at the edge of the hill.
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. 59 · 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.