The Martyrdom of the Holy Innocents

Title: The Martyrdom of the Holy Innocents

Artist: Gustave Doré

Medium: Ink and gouache on paper

Size: 56.5 x 84 cm

Date: c.1868

Location: Private collection.

Matthew 2:16-18 records that when Herod realized that the Magi left and had not reported back to him as requested, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”

The murder of the children of Bethlehem thus fits what is historically know of Herod's character (he was well know to ruthlessly have his own sons murdered); yet it is not surprising that other early writers do not mention this particular atrocity. Herod's reign was an era of many highly placed political assassinations, and our accounts come from well-to-do reporters focused on the royal house and national events. In such circles the execution of perhaps twenty children in a small town would warrant little attention - except from God.

Matthew does not simply report this act of injustice dispassionately; he chooses an ancient lament from one of the most sorrowful times of his people's history. Jeremiah 31:15 speaks of Rachel weeping for her children, poetically describing the favored mother of Benjamin (standing for all Judah) mourning because her descendants were led into exile. Rachel, who wept from her grave in Bethlehem during the captivity, was now weeping at another, nearer crisis significant in salvation history.

Paul Gustave Doré (January 6, 1832 – January 23, 1883) French artist, the son of a civil engineer, was born at Strassburg. In 1848 he came to Paris and secured a three years engagement on the Journal pour rire. His facility as a draughtsman was extraordinary, and among the books he illustrated in rapid succession were Balzac's Contes drolatiques (1855), Dante's "Inferno" (1861), Don Quixote (1863), The Bible (1866), Paradise Lost (1866), and the works of Rabelais (1873). He painted also many large and ambitious compositions of religious or historical character, and made some success as a sculptor, his statue of Alexandre Dumas in Paris being perhaps his best-known work in this line.

Jesus Walking on the Sea

Title: Jesus Walking on the Sea

Artist: Gustave Doré

Medium: Woodcut print

Size: large folio volumes (43 cm.)

Date: 1866

Location: Pg. 185, Le Sainte Bible: Traduction nouvelle selon la Vulgate par Mm. J.-J. Bourasse et P. Janvier. Tours: Alfred Mame et Fils.

After miraculously providing five thousand of his followers with food, Jesus withdrew again to a mountain to be by himself. That evening his disciples departed by boat without him, but, as recorded in John 6:18-21 “A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. When they had rowed three or three and a half miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were terrified. But he said to them, ‘It is I; don't be afraid.’ Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.”

A floundering boat is illuminated against a distant horizon, heavy clouds roiling overhead. Into this chaos strolls a majestic figure, self illuminating, reflected against what is everywhere else a churning sea. The simple confidence exuded in Doré’s Christ is well fitted to the call of ‘It is I; don't be afraid.’ One of the disciples, realizing the identity of the figure, waves back from the bow of the boat.

Paul Gustave Doré (January 6, 1832 – January 23, 1883) was a French artist, engraver, illustrator and sculptor. Doré worked primarily with wood engraving and steel engraving. Doré was born in Strasbourg and his first illustrated story was published at the age of fifteen. By 1853 Doré was asked to illustrate the works of Lord Byron, and this commission was followed by additional work for British publishers, including a new illustrated English Bible. Doré's English Bible (1866) was a great success, and in 1867 Doré had a major exhibition of his work in London. This exhibition led to the foundation of the Doré Gallery in New Bond Street.