The Sea Monster: Alcina Carries Off Astolfo on a Whale – Gustave Doré (1879)

The island that was really a whale

A huge creature rises from a grey, restless sea, spouting two jets of water, its round eyes staring straight at us. On its back, a crowned woman points towards the horizon while a knight clings to her side, sword at his hip. In the foreground, another knight in a helmet struggles through the waves, too late to follow them. This is one of the most enchanting plates Gustave Doré created for Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, published in 1879.

A sorceress, a paladin and a trap

The scene comes from Canto VI of the poem. The English paladin Astolfo, cousin of Orlando, is travelling with his companion Rinaldo when they meet Alcina, a sorceress and sister of Morgan le Fay, who can summon every fish of the sea with her spells. She calls up a whale so vast that it looks like an island, and lures Astolfo onto its back. The "island" then swims away, carrying the knight far across the ocean to her enchanted realm, while Rinaldo can only watch helplessly. Astolfo becomes Alcina's lover, until she tires of him and turns him into a myrtle tree, as she has done with so many men before him.

Doré's final masterpiece

Written by Ludovico Ariosto in the early 16th century, Orlando Furioso is a sprawling tale of knights, sorcerers, flying horses and sea monsters that has inspired painters and composers for five centuries, from Ingres to Handel's opera Alcina. In 1879, Doré devoted more than six hundred illustrations to it: it was the last great illustrated book of his career. Here he plays on an old sailors' legend, the giant fish mistaken for an island, and turns the whale into a fairy-tale creature with a friendly, almost comic face, far from the terror of his biblical scenes.

Why it works so well on a wall

With its soft silver-grey tones and its sea rendered in thousands of fine wavy lines, this engraving brings a touch of fantasy and adventure to any room. It looks wonderful in a seaside home, a bathroom, a reading corner or a child's bedroom, and pairs naturally with blue, grey and natural wood tones. Frame it in thin black or light oak for a crisp look, or in weathered wood for a nautical, cabinet-of-curiosities feel.

• Artist: Gustave Doré (1832–1883)
• Date: 1879
• Medium: Wood engraving
• Published in: Ariosto's Orlando Furioso (Hachette, Paris, 1879)
• Subject: Canto VI, the sorceress Alcina carries off the knight Astolfo

Looking for a darker side of Doré? Discover his apocalyptic Death on the Pale Horse, or explore all his works in our Gustave Doré engraving prints collection.