All Resolutions
(Hell; Canto XXV, line 82.)
(Plate 5.)
Artist
- Name:
- Blake, William
- Dates:
- 1757-1827
- Country:
- UK
Illustration
- Subject:
- Narratives
- Technique:
- Metal engraving
- Engraver:
- Blake, William
- Format:
- Landscape (wider)
- Source:
- McGill University Library, the Internet Archive
Book
- Title:
- Blake's Illustrations to Dante
- Author(s):
- Blake, William
- Publisher:
- London: Linnell, John, n.d. [1838]
Description
Copper-plate engraving showing another scene from the seventh bolgia, in the eighth circle of Hell: smoke and flames form like a roof over the four male figures, two of which stand naked on each side of a bellicose snake. On the left stands Dante, his body almost hiding the figure of Virgil. Donati has just been bitten at the navel by the serpent, and as Dante describes:
One from the wound, the other from the mouth
Breathed a thick smoke, whose vapoury columns join’d.
In addition, Donati’s hair seems to be standing on end as he bends to the left with a somewhat stunned expression. The other thief’s posture, stylized and tormented, suggests he’d rather be in some quieter place.
Keywords: 1830s, 19th century, black & white, fire, frightened, nudity, Romanticism, snake, The divine comedy, unwell, Victorian
