EXIT FROM HELL

Original 9 1/2 inch x 7 5/8 inch Engraving EXIT FROM HELL.

The descent into hell which had begun on Good Friday ends as Dante and Virgil emerge from hell at dawn on Easter Sunday morning. Dante’s descent and ascent recapitulates those of Christ and of the Church’s annual ecclesiastical calendar. Having completed his voyage to the heart of darkness, Dante is ready to begin his climb toward the light.

Text below the image: ”By that hidden way my guide and I did enter, to return to the fair world.” Canto XXXIV., lines 127-129.

Engraved by Heliodore Joseph Pisan (1822 – 1890). Pisan, born in Marseilles, was a painter, watercolourist, engraver, illustrator, lithographer of genre scenes, landscapes and still-lifes. He exhibited at the Paris Salon from 1849 and was made a Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur. He produced mainly book illustrations, notably Don Quixote in 1861, The Bible after the work of Gustave Doré.

Illustration by Gustave Doré (1832 – 1883). The most popular and successful French book illustrator of the middle of the 19th century. Doré became widely known for his illustrations to such books as Danté’s Inferno (1861), Don Quixote (1862), and the Bible (1866), and he helped to give European currency to the illustrated book of large format. He was so prolific that at one time he employed more than forty wood engravers. His work is characterized by an eclectic mix of Michelangelesque nudes, northern traditions of sublime landscape, and a highly spirited love of the grotesque and bizarre.

Doré began work on his illustrations for the Divine Comedy in 1855 at a time when there was a renewed interest in Dante in France. Doré himself financed the publication of the Inferno in 1861 and this was so successful that the Purgatory and Paradise were published by Hachette in 1868 as a single volume. Subsequently, Doré’s Dante illustrations appeared in roughly 200 editions in many languages.

Illustration for Dante Alighieri’s “The Divine Comedy” widely considered to be the preeminent work in Italian literature and one of the greatest works of world literature. It is divided into three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. This illustration is from the Inferno.

Published as a part work by Cassell and Company, Limited, London. May 1903 – September 1904.

Page size 13 1/4 inch x 10 inch

The engraving, on fairly thick paper, is in very good condition. Reverse side blank.