I do agree that Dore’s representation of Satan is based upon the text of Paradise Lost.

I do agree that Dore’s representation of Satan is based upon the text of Paradise Lost. The first thing I think of looking at this painting is the moment of Satan’s fall from Heaven. At least this is how my mind, unable to imagine anything not based upon actual image, is inclined to perceive the moment of Satan’s fall. To this perception contributes the surprised expression on Satan’s face and his pose – he is trying to get hold of the rocks in order to keep balance. However, because my mind is wise after the event, I understand that what Dore depicted on his painting is not the case in Milton’s work, which I am going to demonstrate.

First of all, and this is most evident, Dore’s Satan is wearing clothes. However, clothes were actually invented (excuse my free style) by Adam and Eve after they ate the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge and realized that they are naked. Till then, and the fall of Satan happened before this significant event, the idea of nudity did not exist.

...innocence, that as a veil

Had shadowed them from knowing ill, was gone;

Just confidence, and native righteousness,

And honor, from about them, naked left

To guilty Shame; he covered, but his robe

Uncovered more.... (IX).

Satan of course could not have the idea of being nude, and therefore he has no reason to cover himself. Moreover, on Satan’s divine level the mundane meditations about nudity are not important. Even if they were, on the painting he is dressed too pretty for the moment of being just fallen from heaven.

Second, on the picture we can see clear contours of rocks, which very much remind me of the pass between Tyan-Shan mountains in Uzbekistan. Yet Milton says, that

...Him  the Almighty Power

hurled headlong flaming from th’ ethereal sky

To bottomless perdition, there to dwell

In adamantine chains and penal fire...

Nine times the space that measures day and night

To mortal men, he with his horrid crew

Lay vanquished, rolling in the fiery gulf...

A dungeon horrible, on all sides round

As one great furnace flamed, yet from those flames

No light, but rather darkness visible

Served only to discover sights of woe,

Regions of sorrow, doleful shades...

As far removed from God and light of Heav’n

As from the center thrice to th’ utmost pole.(I)

Milton gives us a very “ethereal” idea of the place. Which is impossible to even call a “place”, because Milton actually does not give us any idea. “Bottomless perdition”, “fiery gulf”, “sights of woe”, “regions of sorrow”, “doleful shades” – all these so-called images do not contribute to our customary description and perception of “place”. It’s rather a very abstract description. Milton is very careful with description of place, which can not be compared to anything. Even description of distance of this place from Heaven is very abstract, “as from the center thrice to th’ utmost pole”, which still does not give us any idea where it is. Also, the time of Satan’s laying “vanquished” is compared to “nine times the space that measures day and night to mortal men”. All these images suggest, that at the time (paradox) when Satan fell, there was no neither space nor time, and we, mortal people, including Milton, can only conjecture when and where it was. Thus, Dore’s depiction of the place is inconsistent.