I do agree that Dore’s representation of Satan

     is based upon the text of Paradise Lost. The first thing I think of when 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. This perception is reinforced by the surprised expression on Satan’s face and his pose - he is trying to get hold of the rocks in order to keep his balance. However, using hindsight, I understand that what Dore depicted in his painting is not what is described 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 were naked. Until 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, in the painting he is dressed too prettily for the moment of having just fallen from heaven.

Secondly, in the picture we can see clear contours of rocks, which very much remind me of the pass between the 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 the description of the place, which can not be compared to anything. Even the description of the 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 lying “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 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.

 This representation of Satan by Dore, I believe, derives from the general trend to depict divine figures as human-like, which was de rigueur during the Renaissance. On their canvas the world is beautiful, and people are ideal. Dore’s Satan is pretty handsome too. His facial expression is just that of surprise, not even suffering, and that’s after the defeat! Yet Milton’s Belzeebub says to Satan about their co-mates:

“...though now they lie

Groveling and prostrate on yon lake of fire,

As we erewhile, astounded and amazed;

No wonder, fallen such a pernicious height!” (I, 279-82)

That’s about facial expressions. What about Satan’s looks in general? Having investigated the text of Paradise Lost, I found the following descriptions of Satan by Milton:

...With head uplift above the wave, and eyes

That sparkling blazed; his other parts besides

Prone on the flood, extended long and large,

Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge

As whom the fables name of monstrous size,

Titanian or Earh-born, that warred on Jove,

Briareos or Typhonm, whom the den

By ancient Tarsus held, or that sea-beast

Leviathan, which God of all his works

Created hugest, that swim th’ ocean-stream.

Him, haply slumbering on the Norway foam,

The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff,

Deeming some island, oft, as seaman tell,

With fixed anchor in his scaly rind,

Moors by his side under the lee, while night

Invests the sea, and wished morn delays.

So stretched out huge in length the Arch-fiend lay....(I, 193-209)

...............................................................................

...his ponderous shield,

Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round,

Behind him cast. The broad circumference

Hung on his shoulders like moon, whose orb

Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views

At evening, from the top of Fesole,

Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands,

Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe.

His spear - to equal which the tallest pine

Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast

Of some great ammiral, were but a wand -

He walked with, to support uneasy steps....(I, 279-294)

All these images suggest that Satan is a titanic figure.  Yet they let us judge only about the SIZE of Satan, for nowhere in the book does Milton give us any idea that Satan looks so and so. In other books, too, although Satan gradually shrinks in size, he is only compared to familiar objects. For example, when Satan penetrates  the garden of Eden, he

At one flight bound high over-leaped all bound

Of hill or highest wall, and sheer within

Lights on his feet. As when a prowling wolf,

Whom hunger drives to seek new haunt for prey....(IV, 180-84)

Milton does not say that Satan looks like a wolf, he rather compares his behavior to a wolf’s. Similarly, when Satan whispers scurrilous things into Eve’s ear, he “squat like a toad” (IV, 799). Thus, Milton does not give us the slightest idea of how to perceive Satan’s looks, rather he lets us imagine Satan's size, his mean behavior etc. Therefore, Dore’s representation of Satan as a man with bat’s wings does not stand the critique. However, Dore may be forgiven, for 1) he was a child of his epoch and 2) the painting is very beautiful!