Rent from the Chin

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Rent from the chin to where one breaketh wind — He was rent from the chin to where one breaketh wind.

Artist

Name:: Dargent, Yan'
Dates:: 1824-1899
Country:: France

Illustration

Subject:: Narratives
Technique:: Wood engraving
Format:: Landscape (wider)
Source:: Robarts Library, the Internet Archive

Book

Title:: La divine comédie
Author(s):: Alighieri, Dante
Publisher:: Paris: Garnier Frères, 1870
Open Library:: View record.

Description

An eviscerated man stands showing his wound to two others as more victims lament around them and a demon keeps torturing people in the background.
This picture illustrates the following passage:

A cask by losing centre-piece or cant
Was never shattered so, as I saw one
Rent from the chin to where one breaketh wind.
(Inferno, Canto XXVIII. Translation: Henry W. Longfellow.)

The caption reads in the original French: Il était fendu depuis le menton jusqu’au fond des entrailles.

Keywords: 1870s, 19th century, black & white, eerie, supernatural, The divine comedy, torture