Artwork preview

Dante Meditating on the "Divine Comedy"

Jean-Jacques Feuchère

National Gallery of Art

This is a painting featuring ghostly figures and mythical creatures surrounding a central man. The man is dressed in a red robe with a red cap on his head, and he is seated on a stone slab, a lamp sitting on a surface next to him. He has peach skin, and his face is partially in shadow. Surrounding him are countless intertwined humans, animals, and creatures in shades of white and gray. Many of the people are so tightly intertwined that their limbs and bodies are only partially visible. Above the man, a creature with the head and torso of a human but the legs of a horse and the wings of a bat rears up. In the upper left-hand corner, several people in long dresses reach up towards a white star-like shape that casts light on them. Two men and a woman on the left stand next to the central man, looking down at him. At the bottom of the painting is a snake, its mouth open to expose its fangs.

Artwork Details

Date
1843
Medium
pen and brown ink with brown wash and watercolor over graphite, heightened with white gouache, on 3 joined sheets of laid paper
Dimensions
3498 × 4083 px
Public Domain
Yes
Museum Record
View original