Daniel in the Den of Lions
Gustave Doré, 1866 · Daniel 6:20
The passage
And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel: and the king spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?
Daniel 6:20
About this plate
Daniel stands at the centre in a pale robe, hands loose, facing slightly up toward a shaft of light coming down the rock. The lions are all around him — one directly behind his shoulder, several lying at his feet, one padding across the floor of the den, more in the shadows. Bones lie on the ground at the front.
They are drawn as animals, not as monsters. Doré gives them weight and boredom. Two of them are lying down. Nothing is snarling.
The bones matter. They are the plate's only argument that this den has been used for its purpose, and they are placed in the immediate foreground, closest to the reader, in front of Daniel's feet.
The verse is a question asked from above, at dawn, by a king who spent the night fasting — is thy God able to deliver thee? Doré draws the answer without drawing the king, so the light coming down the shaft has to do double duty as the daylight and as the reply. Daniel is facing it. The lions are not.
Swipe left or right for the next plate