The Work
Doré's Isaiah's Vision of the Destruction of Babylon (from La Sainte Bible, 1866) depicts the prophet amid the ruins of Babylon, wild animals prowling the desolate city under a darkened sky, fulfilling the oracles of judgment in Isaiah 13. The monumental fallen architecture and the solitary prophet are classic elements of the Romantic ruin aesthetic applied to prophetic literature.
Biblical Source
Isaiah 13:19-22 - "Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the pride and glory of the Babylonians, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah. She will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations... But desert creatures will lie there, jackals will fill her houses; there the owls will dwell, and there the wild goats will leap about" - provides the detailed vision of permanent desolation that Doré renders. The fallen pillars, the wild animals, the darkened sky, the solitary prophet figure - all these elements are specified in the text.
Artist and Iconography
Doré's plate is his most sustained exercise in Romantic ruin aesthetics applied to prophetic subject matter. The scale of the ruins - architectural grandeur reduced to rubble - communicates the totality of divine judgment on imperial pride. The lone figure of Isaiah amid the destruction is both witness and fulfillment: the prophet who spoke the words now stands in their completion.