Don Quixote 

Gustave Doré created this image of Don Quixote using engraving techniques to produce stark contrasts and intricate details. The composition is divided into two scenes, each dominated by a wooden horse, one soaring through a starlit sky and the other being carried by men in a procession. The use of light and shadow creates a dramatic, almost dreamlike quality. Doré employs line and form to construct not just images but also ideas. The upper scene, with Don Quixote riding the wooden horse, uses darkness to emphasize the fantastical, while the lower scene grounds us in a more communal, earthly reality. The contrast highlights the tensions between reality and illusion, imagination and the mundane. The formal structure of this engraving serves as a metaphor for the themes in Cervantes’ novel. Notice how the graphic representation destabilizes the very notion of perspective, creating an ongoing dialogue between idealism and pragmatism.