The Death of Jezebel 

Gustave Doré rendered ‘The Death of Jezebel’ with the dramatic flair characteristic of his illustrative style. The scene depicts Jezebel being thrown from a window, a visceral symbol of the downfall of power and the consequences of defiance against religious authority. The act of casting down, a recurring motif throughout art history, echoes in works from antiquity to the Renaissance, often representing the fall from grace or divine punishment. Consider how this motif appears in depictions of the expulsion from the Garden of Eden. The emotional intensity of these images taps into a collective memory of transgression and retribution. The dogs present at the bottom, awaiting Jezebel's body, add a layer of grim inevitability, reminiscent of the Cerberus guarding the gates of the underworld. Such imagery engages our subconscious fears of mortality and divine judgment. This cyclical pattern of hubris, fall, and reckoning resonates across cultures and epochs. It shows us how symbols are continuously reinterpreted, carrying the weight of past meanings into new contexts.