A winged figure stands on the crag with John and points to the city.
Bible in art · Revelation
The Angel Shows John Jerusalem
Gustave Doré · 1866 (designs for La Sainte Bible, Tours); this printing 1873–1874
National Library of Poland, Warsaw
H. Pisan cut this visionary plate after Doré’s design for the Bible of 1866. Here Doré works almost like a landscape painter, with mountains, a gorge and a sky full of light.
On a high crag at the right a winged angel stands beside John and points. Across a deep gorge lies a city of square towers and flat roofs, and at its center a domed building glows white. Long rays of light pour down from a break in the clouds onto the city, while the rocks in the foreground sink into darkness.
From the text
- “he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high” (Revelation 21:10)
- He “showed me the holy city of Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God” (Revelation 21:10)
- “shining with the glory of God” (Revelation 21:11)
The artist’s own
- The city stands on the earth, on the cliffs across the gorge — the text says it was coming down out of heaven
- Flat-roofed houses and domes, like a city of the Near East in Doré’s day
- Rays of light from the clouds for the city’s radiance
Details
The angel and John
The shining dome
A domed building glows white at the heart of the city.
Walls and towers
Square towers stand on the edge of the cliffs.
Rays of light
Long beams pour down from a break in the clouds.
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.