St. Peter Delivered From Prison 

Gustave Doré created this engraving, St. Peter Delivered From Prison, in nineteenth-century France, at a time when rapid industrialization and social change were prompting both utopian and reactionary responses. Doré was a prolific and successful illustrator, widely known for his dramatic and detailed scenes from literature and the Bible. Here, we see the Apostle Peter led from his prison cell by an angel, while the guards lie in a deep, unnatural sleep. Doré's images were immensely popular but he was excluded by the artistic establishment, who considered his work to be overly commercial, perhaps even papist. His style, with its dramatic contrasts and theatrical compositions, speaks to the power of religious belief to inspire and transform. But it could also be seen as playing to the market, and therefore somehow inauthentic. To understand Doré’s art fully, we can examine his historical context: the rise of mass media, the complex relationship between art and commerce, and the ongoing negotiation between religious faith and modern secular society.