The Plague of Darkness
Gustave Doré, 1866 · Exodus 10:22
The passage
And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days:
Exodus 10:22
About this plate
A colonnade of enormous Egyptian columns runs back into blackness. Bodies lie collapsed across the steps in every direction, some sprawled, some curled, none moving. Far off at the right there is a thin bright band on the horizon where the light still is, and a line of figures standing in it.
Exodus calls it a darkness which may be felt, and says the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. Dore puts both halves in the same frame: the black temple in the foreground and, miles away, a strip of daylight with people upright in it. You have to look for it.
The engraving problem here is severe. Almost the whole block has to read as dark while still showing you architecture, bodies and distance. Doré solves it with the columns, which catch just enough edge light to give the eye something to climb, and everything else is left to sink.
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