A bearded figure, his robe streaming, strides down through the light.
Bible in art · Isaiah
The Destruction of Leviathan
Gustave Doré · 1866 (designs for La Sainte Bible, Tours); this printing 1873–1874
National Library of Poland, Warsaw
H. Pisan, whose name stands at the lower right, cut this design into the wood block. With lines of different weight he gives the storm water, the clouds and the scaly hide each a texture of its own.
A bearded figure in a wind-torn robe strides down out of the clouds in a shaft of light, a sword in his hand. Below, the sea boils: the coils of a huge serpent rise against the dark horizon, and its fanged head turns up out of the foam, jaws open.
From the text
- “the LORD will take His sharp, great, and mighty sword” (Isaiah 27:1)
- “Leviathan the coiling serpent” (Isaiah 27:1)
- “He will slay the dragon of the sea” (Isaiah 27:1)
The artist’s own
- A prophecy of what will happen “in that day” shown as a battle taking place now
- Leviathan as a finned sea dragon with endless coils, part serpent and part fish
- A sudden beam of light breaking through the storm around the figure with the sword
Details
The figure in the clouds
The sword
He holds a long straight blade pointing down at the sea.
The coils
Loop after loop of the serpent’s body rises above the waves.
The dragon’s head
Its jaws gape open in the white foam.
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.