Gustave Dore Illustration: Empyrean

This astonishing engraving is from Doré’s magnificent illustrated version of Dante’s Paradiso, Canto 31. It’s very hard to create a decent image of this online because there’s so much detail in the engraving. The main version I have is a large format publication by Omega Press, good because it’s large, bad because it’s on wood-free paper so the ink has settled in and it’s hard to capture the detail.

Interestingly, it’s the line engraving that makes it so fantastic, the original line illustrations are beautiful but inevitably less definitive. I think it’s the combination of Doré’s dramatic vision with the precision of the engraver’s blade that creates such a powerful effect. Modern graphic artists such as the late Bernie Wrightson, particularly in his Frankenstein images, and Barry Windsor Smith have recreated this effect with their own magnificent pen and ink illustrations, and of course the explosion of doodle artists like Kerby Rosanes on Instagram and Youtube show the fascination is alive and well.

Empyrean Context and Links

Empyrean is the Highest Heaven of Dante’s heavenly structure. The two silhouetted figures are Dante and his guide Beatrice looking up at the Saints and Angels. The Empyrean appears in Paradiso, the third book of Dante’s The Divine Comedy (1320), after Inferno and Purgatorio, as a destination for Dante’s long journey of the soul. Dante Alighieri‘s poem is regarded as one of the greatest and most enduring works in literature, studied today as pre-eminent, alongside the works of Shakespeare and Cervantes Don Quixote.

Other Great Works of 1300s

The 14th Century of Western history coincided with the Yuan Dynasty in China and the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt. It saw an unusual flowering of literature, philosophy and natural sciences across many traditions, including the following: