Gustave Dore Analysis "Enigma"

Narrative:

Enigma is the name of this brilliant piece by Dore, and the juxtaposition of the more fantastical elements of the sphinx and the angel next to the dead bodies of soldier and women and children epitomize the term enigma. What was Dore trying to express here? First we need to look into the meaning of what the sphinx represents. 

The sphinx in Egypt represented the guardian or protector of tombs, while in Greek mythology the sphinx represented mystery and brutality. Angels in western thought, obviously represent gods mercy so I would say the sphinx in this context must then represent brutality. To me then I see that the "Enigma" of this piece is the brutality that man does to one another, how we could do such horrible things to others and still have this highest nature inside us is an Enigma that Dore tries to capture by putting a sphinx and angel next to one another. The angel seems to be begging for mercy from the Sphinx, who looks down on the angel almost in a fatherly way as if he is saying "How could you understand something so complicated as suffering?"

Values

When we look at this piece in the threshold setting we can adjust the threshold to show us the darker regions and as we suspect we see what we usually see in most great works of art, which is a strong grouping of shadows. We see the shadows extend all the way from the sphinx to the angel to the pile of rubbish and bodies on the left. Likewise we see the shading extends backwards into the horizon. 

The threshold distorts this a little bit because it takes away the mid tones and replaces them with just two tones. So we should keep this in mind and recognize that multiple tones can be used as bridges from one to the next as the case is from the shadows of the angel to the shadows in the background of the image and the foreground of the image. The shadows surrounding the angel's silhouette are darker than  the foreground or background and help differentiate from both. 

Composition

When we look at the composition we can see that the rule of thirds apply and the main focal point is slightly to the left and the brightness of the sky behind them is used to help create the silhouette. In fact the smoke that blooms in the air from both the left and right move diagonally across the canvas and create a nice halo like effect around them keeping our eyes here. 

We can also see other indications of how the eye is lead around the piece with the figure on the right bottom pointing us to the bigger mass light and shadow object of our painting and in fact you could say this for the figures legs above as well. 

Color

Here we see that the image is mostly done in a grayscale with muted colors. In the foreground we get a lot of warm grey browns, reds,..etc. while the figures themselves are cooler blues and their shadows a deep red. We see these warms in the foreground slowly become cool as they go into the distance and become warmer again as they go into the sky.