Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1884 edition. Excerpt: ... gloom of the angry sky, adds to the sombre tone of the picture. On the distant horizon is seen Calvary, with the three crosses, standing out against the gleaming sky. The awe, trouble, and terror of the scene are wrought out with the imagination of a poet. This picture was exhibited at the Salon, in Paris, in 1873. It was then thus commented on by Lb CONSTITUTIONNEL: "G. Dore exposes this year one of the most complete works he has ever had at the Salon. It has for title ' Les Tenebres, ' and it carries us back to that final and terrific catastrophe of the Great Drama of the Passion, to which St. Luke makes allusion when he tells us ' It was about the sixth hour, and darkness overspread the earth until the ninth hour. The earth trembled, and the veil of the temple was rent. And they who had seen all these things returned smiting their breasts.' (Ch. xxiii. v. 44.) It is from this text that Dore is inspired, and it is in the tenor of this moment, unique in the history of the world, which he has rendered in a composition thrilling and grand. Jerusalem is plunged in the darkness visible, of which the Evangelist has spoken; a light falls from Heaven on Golgotha, whose illuminated summit shows the three crosses, instruments of infamy as well as of punishment, on which the Redeemer and the two thieves, who were his companions in death, have just expired. All the inhabitants have quitted their houses, and they wander like phantoms in the streets and public squares. Numbers crowd the roofs and terraces of the palaces--everywhere reigns disorder and the confusion so natural at such a time. The guiltiest endeavour to throw the blame on others. They threaten, they gesticulate--they curse with their lips--they menace with their eyes, and on all those...