This representation of Satan by Dore, I belioeve, derives from

 This representation of Satan by Dore, I belioeve, derives from the general trend to depict divine figures human-like, that was de rigueur during 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 through 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 Milton gives 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 into 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 wolf, he rather compares his behavior to 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 to perceive Satan’s looks, he rather let us imagine his size, his mean behavior etc. Therefore, Dore’s representation of Satan like 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