The Descent of the Spirit
Gustave Doré, 1866 · Acts 2:2
The passage
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
Acts 2:2
About this plate
An interior at night. Twenty or so figures stand in a ring, heads bowed, and above each head burns a small upright flame. Higher, in the roof space, a dove comes down through a shaft of light that spreads into rays across the whole upper half of the plate.
The flames are drawn small, and that restraint makes the picture. Each one is a candle-sized mark over a person who is not reacting to it — no arms flung up, no faces turned. They are praying, and something has happened on top of their heads.
The verse is all noise and no sight: And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. A sound that fills a house. Nothing is described as being seen until the next verse.
So Doré has to draw a noise, and what he does is fill the air with rays that behave like a blast — straight, radial, coming down and outward — while the people below stand perfectly still inside it.
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