1943.444: The Centaurs and the River of Blood (from Dante's "Divine Comedy")
DrawingsFrom center top to the foreground at center bottom, a curving red-colored river flows toward us. As various figures are carried along in its current, creatures that have the bodies of horses and human heads, arms, and torsos, stand on the shores. The centaurs hold bows and arrows and watch, some taking aim at those in the river. In the extreme foreground on either side, a steep hill rises up. In front of the hill at left we see a male centaur from behind, and against the hill at right a female centaur reclines. Each holds a bow and arrow.
Identification and Creation
- Object Number
- 1943.444
- People
-
William Blake, British (London, England 1757 - 1827 London, England)
- Title
- The Centaurs and the River of Blood (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/297460
Physical Descriptions
- Medium
- Watercolor, black ink, graphite, and black chalk on off-white antique laid paper
- Dimensions
- 37.1 × 32.3 cm (14 5/8 × 12 11/16 in.)
- Inscriptions and Marks
-
- inscription: lr: HELL Canto 12
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
- 1943.444
- Division
- European and American Art
- Contact
- am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
- Permissions
-
THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.
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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 (23)
- David Bindman, William Blake: The Divine Comedy/Die göttliche Komödie/La divine comédie, Bibliothèque de l'Image (Paris, 2000), pl. 24 (color)
Related Objects
Verification Level
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