William Blake – “Dante Faints”

http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/gallery04.html

I found this image from the resource site Danteworlds (UTexas). It is found in the site’s Circle 2 Gallery.  The art is by William Blake and it is entitled “Dante Faints” referring to the end of Canto 5.

Dante entered the Gate of Hell with his guide, Virgil, and passed through the first circle. This painting refers to Dante’s presence in the second circle, where lovers guilty of lust are in an “infernal whirlwind which never rests” (31) that endlessly punishes and tortures them. The painting displays souls trapped in this hellish wind. Dante encounters many famous historical and mythical women being blown in the wind including Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, and Francesca. Love, lust, and desire all led these women to their demise and suffering in the second circle of hell.

The painting refers to the entire canto but most specifically to lines 31-43 and lines 115-142. Lines 31-43 describe the restless wind that these sinners are stuck in. As Dante and Virgil encounter the women, Virgil explains to Dante what acts of love brought them to hell. Dante is especially interested in Francesca’s romance. Francesca had an affair with her husband’s younger brother Paolo and Francesca’s husband murdered them. Dante tells Francesca that her sufferings make him “sad and piteous to tears” (115-116). Dante was so moved by Francesca that he fainted as he says “so that for pity I fainted as if I were dying” (139-140). On the right side of the painting, Dante is pictured having fainted flat on his back as Virgil stands over him.

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