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Going through Hell: The Divine Dante

A pale-skinned man sits, holding an open book next to his lap so the pages face us in this square painting. His body is angled to our right, and he turns his head farther in that direction, so his face is in profile. He has heavy brows, high cheekbones, and a prominent, hooked nose. His lower lip projects beyond his thin upper lip, and his chin juts out. He is lit from our right, so the hollows of his cheeks are in shadow. A vivid red cap encircled by a wreath of laurel leaves covers his dark hair. His long, cranberry-red robe splits over the shoulders to show navy-blue sleeves. His left hand, farther from us, braces the top of the open book, which comes up to chest height. A poem written in verses of three lines each in Italian can be read on both pages. The man’s other hand is lifted and hovers, palm down, over a miniature skyline by his side. The buildings there include a dome with a pointed lantern and two towers. A lighter tan area in the lower left corner, beneath the skyline, is difficult to interpret. The man sits on a grassy outcropping, which is mostly lost in the shadows. A body of blue water stretches into the distance beyond the outcropping to meet a conical mountain layered like a cake with ten sections. Trees grow on the narrowest, topmost level, and flames line the second level. A boat, tiny in scale, sails across the water near a grassy, zigzagging shore in the distance. Light from the upper right creates a creamy yellow beam across the otherwise darkened sky.
Florentine 16th Century, Allegorical Portrait of Dante, late 16th century, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.57
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This free-standing bronze sculpture shows a nude, muscular man sitting on a rock and resting his chin on the back of his right hand, with that elbow propped on his left knee. In this photograph, the man’s body is angled slightly to our left. He hunches a bit as his body twists so his right elbow, on our left, reaches the opposite knee. His other rests along his leg so the hand dangles beyond the knee. The man has short-cropped hair, a furrowed brow, an angular nose, and lines around his mouth and eyes. The foot on our right rests higher on the rock so that knee juts up a little higher than the other. The bronze has a greenish patina, especially noticeable along the top of the man’s head and shoulders and the front of his lower legs.
Auguste Rodin, The Thinker (Le Penseur), model 1880, cast 1901, bronze, Gift of Mrs. John W. Simpson, 1942.5.12
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Robert Rauschenberg, Drawings for Dante's 700 Birthday, II.B, 1965, graphite, watercolor, and gouache with screenprint on two panels of Strathmore illustration board, Gift of the Woodward Foundation, Washington, D.C., 1976.56.137
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Gy Szabo Bela, Dante: L'enfer, Chant XXI, Ongles sales (Dante's Inferno, Canto XXI, Nasty Claws), 1963, hand printed wood engraving on Japanese paper, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Le Bovit, 1968.22.6
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Jean-Jacques Feuchère, Dante Meditating on the "Divine Comedy", 1843, pen and brown ink with brown wash and watercolor over graphite, heightened with white gouache, on 3 joined sheets of laid paper, Gift of the Christian Humann Foundation, 1996.128.14
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Florentine 15th Century, Dante before the Mountain of Purgatory [reverse], late 15th century, bronze//Molded frame, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1957.14.893.b
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Joseph Anton Koch, Dante and Virgil Riding on the Back of Geryon, c. 1821, pen and black ink over graphite on laid paper, fragments of graphite borderlines at top, left, and bottom, Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 2007.111.113
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A man and woman embrace and kiss while sitting on a rocky formation in this free-standing bronze sculpture. Both people are nude, and they turn toward each other. In this photograph, to our right, the slender woman reaches her left arm, closer to us, up to wrap around the man’s neck. Her left breast is silhouetted against the man’s muscular chest. The woman’s raised arm covers most of their faces but the man turns his head down to meet hers. The man rests his right hand, closer to us, on her hip and she hooks one leg over his. His knees are angled to our left and he turns his torso toward her. The woman’s left toes brush his foot, just below hers. They sit on a textured, rock-like form. The surface of sculpture has a golden-brown patina, which darkens where the bodies fold and crease. The artist’s name is stamped into the seat, just below the woman’s hip: “RODIN.”
Auguste Rodin, The Kiss (Le Baiser), model 1880-1887, cast c. 1898/1902, bronze, Gift of Mrs. John W. Simpson, 1942.5.15
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William Etty, Scene from the Inferno (canto IX), pen and black ink with gray wash, Julius S. Held Collection, 1985.1.31
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Bartolomeo Pinelli, Dante Flees the Wild Beasts and Meets Virgil, 1824, graphite on laid paper, mounted on nineteenth-century album sheet, Gift of Alexandra Baer, 2007.149.1
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Florentine 15th Century, Dante Alighieri, Florentine Poet, 1265-1321 [obverse], late 15th century, bronze//Molded frame, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1957.14.893.a
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William Blake, The Circle of the Lustful: Paolo and Francesca, 1827, engraving, Rosenwald Collection, 1943.3.5395
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Italian 15th Century, The Inferno, after the Fresco in the Camposanto of Pisa, c. 1480/1500, engraving, Rosenwald Collection, 1964.8.184
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