Conversion of Saul
Gustave Doré, 1866 · Acts 9:3
The passage
And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:
Acts 9:3
About this plate
A road, and a fall. Shafts of light come down hard from the upper left and land on a white horse that has gone over on its side. Saul is on the ground beneath it, one arm across his eyes, his sword and shield thrown clear. Around him men and animals are down or bolting; one figure is flat on his face in the near foreground.
Doré gives the horse more of the light than the man. The animal is the brightest object on the block, and Saul, who is the subject, is a dark shape underneath it.
The verse is precise and nearly bureaucratic about geography: And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven. He was almost there. He had a destination and papers and a job to do.
The blindness is not in this verse yet, but Doré draws the arm across the eyes anyway, because that is what a man does in a light like this before he knows it is going to last three days.
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