“Paolo and Francesca”
“Paolo and Francesca” is a gorgeous oil on canvas painting by the English Symbolist artist, George Frederic Watts. This painting was made between 1872 and 1884, with the majority of it worked on between 1872 and 1875.
“Paolo and Francesca” were real characters from history that became immortalized in Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. The tragedy of the couple was written into Canto V of the Inferno, the first part of the Divine Comedy.
Paolo Malatesta was an Italian nobleman from the thirteenth century. Francesca da Rimini was an Italian noblewoman. Paolo’s father had arranged a marriage between his first son, Giovanni, and Francesca, ending a long-standing war between the two families. However, Giovanni was a cripple. To ensure the marriage would happen, it was said that Paolo’s father had him stand in as the proxy for Giovanni. Known as the Beauty, Paolo was said to be handsome and cultured, a stark difference from his older brother. Francesca saw Paolo and fell in love.
After the marriage and the real husband became known to Francesca, she supposedly engaged in an affair with Paolo. This affair was said to have taken place over a ten-year period. When Giovanni heard the rumors, he staked out his wife’s bedroom in an attempt to catch Paolo in the act. When the moment came, he attempted to strike Paolo with his sword but struck Francesca instead, killing her. He then killed Paolo. This double assassination is believed to have taken place at the Gradara Castle in Urbino, Italy.
Though the affair and double murder are believed to be historically accurate, Paolo was likely not a proxy for his brother at the wedding. Dante was a contemporary with the couple and is said to have met Paolo during his lifetime.
In Canto V, Dante and Virgil meet the infamous couple during their tour of hell and hear the tragic story of their passion. They are located in the second circle of hell reserved for the sin of lust. They are caught in an endless wind as she recounts her story to Dante and Virgil. See the following excerpt:
And when I could speak again, I just sighed: “How sad. What sweet thoughts, what longing desires finally brought these two pitiful souls down into this awful place.” So, trying to take up where she left off, I said: “O Francesca, your terrible agony pains me to tears. Tell me, if you can: in the midst of that sweet passionate fever, what led you to such forbidden desires?“
“Ohh…” she replied tenderly, “there’s no greater pain than remembering happy times when you’re deep in grief. I suspect your guide knows this as well. However, if you want to delve into the root of such love as ours, I’ll try to tell you – with words and tears. One day, just to pass the time, we were reading the story of Lancelot and how, like us, he had fallen in love. We were by ourselves and beyond suspicion. But as we read, our eyes kept meeting and we’d blush and lower our glances. How can I say it… we yielded to our passions because of one single line in that book. When we read how those secretly desired lips were finally kissed by such a famed lover, this one here (who will accompany me for eternity), all a-tremble, kissed my mouth. A pimp was that book, and a pimp was the one who wrote it! That day we read no further…”
The whole time she was relating this tragic story, her lover wept alongside her so bitterly that pity completely overwhelmed me. I tell you, I swooned as though I had died, and dropped to Hell’s floor like a corpse!
The tragic love story of Paolo and Francesca was a favorite subject for artists, and was painted by many artists including Ary Scheffer, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Gustave Doré, and Auguste Rodin. Watts created several versions of the couple over many years. The piece shown here was his final and most finished version.
“Paolo and Francesca” is in the collections of the Watts Gallery – Artists’ Village in Surrey, England.
For more on George Frederic Watts, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
