People walking in waist deep muck as two figures look on from atop an arch
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

Below in the foreground, various naked figures struggle to move through a pit filled with grey-brown muck. At right one woman walks in, ankle deep, but just beyond her, a pair of hands poking out of the muck are all that is visible of another figure. At center, a man is in up to his waist as he holds his hands over his head. Flames shoot down from a dark cloud that hovers over them. On the other side of the ditch, two figures at the top of an arched stone bridge. Figures with whips fly in the air at left behind them.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.435
People
William Blake, British (London, England 1757 - 1827 London, England)
Title
Dante and Virgil Gazing into the Ditch of Flatterers (from Dante's "Divine Comedy")
Other Titles
Series/Book Title: Dante, "The Divine Comedy"
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
1824-1827
Culture
British
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/297760

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Watercolor, black ink, graphite, and black chalk on off-white antique laid paper
Dimensions
37 × 52.3 cm (14 9/16 × 20 9/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: lrc: HELL Canto 18 WB

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Grenville Lindall Winthrop, New York, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.435
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Agnes Mongan, "The Fogg Art Museum's Collection of Drawings", Harvard Library Bulletin, Harvard University (Cambridge, 1958), vol. 3, no. 2, March, pp. 5-9, p. 202
  • Martin Butlin, The Paintings and Drawings of William Blake, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 1981), no. 812 (33)
  • Dante Alighieri, Inferno, Folio Society (London, England, 1998), repr. in color facing p. 71
  • David Bindman, William Blake: The Divine Comedy/Die göttliche Komödie/La divine comédie, Bibliothèque de l'Image (Paris, 2000), pl. 35 (color)
  • "Hell through the Ages", Index Magazine (e-journal, February 12, 2018), https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/article/hell-through-the-ages, accessed March 13, 2018
  • Stephen J. Vicchio, Hell: A Detailed History of an Idea, Wisdom Editions (Minneapolis, 2024), p. 268, repr.

Exhibition History

  • 32Q: 2220 18th-19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 02/08/2018 - 05/09/2018

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Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu