“Dante and Virgil”
“Dante and Virgil” is an oil on canvas painting by the French academic artist, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, from 1850. Bouguereau painted this piece when he was just 25 years old. It was one of his earliest pieces to be accepted at the Paris Salon, where it was greatly received. Romanticism was in vogue, and the drama of two grown men in a desperate fight with nothing but their hands appealed to the romantic sensibilities of the time.
This piece is based on the epic poem, The Divine Comedy, written by the Italian poet, Dante Alighieri. Written sometime between 1308 and 1321, The Divine Comedy describes the predominant worldview during the Middle Ages of the levels of the afterlife. There was the suffering of hell, the realm of purgatory, and the higher aspirations of heaven. In the poem, Dante is guided by the Roman poet, Virgil, through each of the realms of the afterlife. Virgil, representative of human reason, departs wisdom and moral virtues to Dante, and therefore the reader.
Bouguereau deftly depicts a verse from ‘Inferno’, the first section of the poem describing the endless circles of hell. The scene depicted here is Inferno, Canto VII, lines 112-114, which reads, “They smote each other not alone with hands, but with the head and with the breast and feet, tearing each other piecemeal with their teeth.”
In this painting, Dante and Virgil are in the eighth circle of Hell. This realm is set aside for counterfeiters and falsifiers. They stand in the background and watch as two damned souls fight. In the fight, the man on the left, Gianni Schicchi, is biting the neck of the man on the right, Capocchio. Other struggles can be seen behind the main subjects, with a man lying on the ground just behind the two fighting. Other people caught in visceral struggles are against the background to the right. A devil with large bat-like wings watches Dante and Virgil as they witness the fight.
Dante and Virgil in hell was a common theme in art for a period. Other versions were made by such famous artists as Eugène Delacroix and Gustave Courtois.
Bouguereau shows off his painting skills by capturing the men without clothes. Their muscles push, pull, and twist as they struggle against each other. The bright skin tones of the fighting men set them apart from the rest of the scene, which is darkened with reds and browns. The men almost glow while the rest of the scene is cast in shadow. Bouguereau was greatly admired by the academy, particularly for his mastery of depicting skin tones. He was simultaneously loved by the academic art world and hated by the avant-garde art crowd.
“Dante and Virgil” is currently on display at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, France.
For more on William-Adolphe Bouguereau, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
