Tate Britain, London
Date: 1824-7
Technique: Chalk, pen and ink and watercolour on paper, 372 x 527 mm
/from Illustrations to Dante's "Divine Comedy"/
This illustrates Dante's description of the pit of thieves. This is the seventh pit of the eighth circle, described in the Inferno. Dante wrote of how
the chasm
Opening to view, I saw a crowd within
Of serpents terrible, so strange of shape
And hideous, that remembrance in my veins
Yet shrinks the vital currents.
... Amid this dread exuberance of woe
Ran naked spirits winged with horrid fear,
... with serpents were their hands behind them bound,
... And lo! on one
Near to our side, darted an adder up...
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