1943.433: Dante and Virgil Among the Blasphemers (from Dante's "Divine Comedy")
DrawingsAt center we see three naked figures, running in terror and falling nearly sideways while surrounded by flames. From the foreground at right, two men in long robes stand looking on. At lower left, lightly sketched figures lie on the ground and further behind them other similarly sketched figures crouch, all of whom are also caught within rising flames. Beyond them, pale washes of orange and yellow color taller flames that rise up to thick dark smoke clouds that loom overhead from the left.
Identification and Creation
- Object Number
- 1943.433
- People
-
William Blake, British (London, England 1757 - 1827 London, England)
- Title
- Dante and Virgil Among the Blasphemers (from Dante's "Divine Comedy")
- Other Titles
-
Series/Book Title: Dante, "The Divine Comedy"
Alternate Title: The Blasphemers, The Usurers and the Sodomites - Classification
- Drawings
- Work Type
- drawing
- Date
- 1824-1827
- Culture
- British
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/297948
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: ll: HELL Canto 14
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
- 1943.433
- 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
- Martin Birnbaum, Jacovleff and Other Artists, Paul A. Struck (New York, 1946), pl. 21
- 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 (26)
- David Bindman, William Blake: The Divine Comedy/Die göttliche Komödie/La divine comédie, Bibliothèque de l'Image (Paris, 2000), pl. 28 (color)
Exhibition History
- 32Q: 2220 18th-19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/24/2022 - 05/02/2022
Related Objects
Verification Level
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