He floats in a ring of rays, his arm raised.
Bible in art · Matthew
The Transfiguration
Gustave Doré · 1866 (designs for La Sainte Bible, Tours); this printing 1873–1874
National Library of Poland, Warsaw
The design is split in two: a burst of light in the clouds above and a dark rocky summit below. In this copy the engraver’s signature at the foot is too faint to read; Doré’s is just visible at the lower left.
Jesus floats in a ring of rays, his arm raised, his robe white. At the left Moses holds the stone tablets, two beams of light rising from his head; at the right Elijah turns toward Jesus. Below, the three disciples lie on the ground, one shielding his face.
From the text
- “His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light” (Matthew 17:2)
- “Moses and Elijah appeared before them, talking with Jesus” (Matthew 17:3)
- “they fell facedown in terror” (Matthew 17:6)
The artist’s own
- Moses with the tablets and two rays of light from his head, a long tradition of painters
- The three figures floating in clouds above the mountain
- No shelters and no bright cloud enveloping them; the light comes from Jesus himself
Details
Jesus
Moses
He holds the tablets of the law, rays rising from his head.
Elijah
A robed figure turns toward the light.
The disciples
Three men lie on the rocks, faces hidden.
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.