Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré completed this oeuvre in 1868. He was best known for his wood engravings, of which he completed 241 depicting scenes of the Bible. The below is either a painting or a wooden engraving which has been coloured. It depicts Christ’s dominion over pagan gods. I was inspired by the Apostle’s Creed to search for depictions of Christ in Hell, where He went after dying on the cross to free the sinners who were condemned to Hell prior to His life on Earth. This is and event Catholics profess in the shorter creed each day before praying the rosary. I have included a portion of the Apostle’s Creed below (emphasis added):
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
Two realms are shown in a dramatic scene. Christ has come to a place almost resembling Hell (complete with red Zeus and Satan flying) to exert His dominion over them. The kingdom of Heaven is the only kingdom which we should aspire to enter. This scene shows this belief in action: Christ has come down with a host of angels to cast away previous gods and those which were worshipped in antiquity. I like in particular the crown in the centre of the lower portion of the work, which is a further reinforcement of Christ’s dominion and primacy.
I found a very useful version of this on Reddit which is labelled:
You can almost hear the sound of Christ appearing with the host, a great boom! As Cardinal Sarah writes in The Power of Silence, “the voice of God resounded in the realm of death. The unimaginable occurred, namely, Love penetrated “hell””. While not the same event, the reflection is the same. Believing in Catholicism is opening oneself to love. Anything else is just noise. Christ is very much the truth and He loves us in a way that we cannot possibly comprehend. So much so that God sent Christ to liberate us from our sinful nature and to set an example for us. I can say without hesitation that I have never been happier than when attempting to follow HIs example.
I felt the same dramatic awakening as depicted in this work when truly opening myself us to the Church.