The Circle of the Lustful: Paolo and Francesca

1827

William Blake

Associated Names
William Blake

Artist, British, 1757 - 1827

This print features a swirling vortex of lines and circular shapes. People appear to be enveloped in the abstract, spiraling forms, which look similar to swirling waves. On the right, there are two people outside of these waves; one person is lying on their back with their arms by their sides, and another person is standing over them. They appear to be standing on a riverbank near the waves of people. Seeming to flow off of the person lying down is one of these flowing waves, within which a man and a woman float, seeming to reach for each other. Near the upper-right corner of the print is a circular, radiant shape containing a smaller depiction of two more people that appear to be facing each other and perhaps kissing.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    engraving

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Dimensions

    plate: 27.7 x 35.5 cm (10 7/8 x 14 in.)
    sheet: 43.7 x 59.9 cm (17 3/16 x 23 9/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1943.3.5395

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Bindman 1978, no. 647

  • Series Title

    Dante's "Divine Comedy": pl.1 ("Inferno," canto V)

More About this Artwork

Article:  Going through Hell? See Dante’s “The Divine Comedy” in Art

Travel with artists through Dante’s Nine Circles of Hell.

Artwork history & notes

Exhibition History

1952

  • 100 Masterpieces of the Print, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1952, no cat.

1953

  • Flight, Fantasy, Faith, Fact: A Loan Exhibition Commemorating the Fiftieth Anniversary of Powered Flight, Dayton Art Institute, OH, 1953-1954, no. 110.

1957

  • The Art of William Blake, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1957.

1961

  • Blake, New Gallery, University of Iowa, Iowa City, 1961, no cat.

1965

  • William Blake, Andrew Dickson White Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 1965, no. 36, repro.

  • William Blake, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1965.

1966

  • Prints 1800-1945, Minneapolis Institute of Arts; City Art Museum of St. Louis; and Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, San Francisco, 1966, no. 11, repro.

1970

  • William Blake's Graphic Art from the Rosenwald Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1970, no cat.

1989

  • Image and Word, Elizabeth Myers Mitchell Art Gallery, St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, 1989.

2023

  • Going through Hell: The Divine Dante, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2023.

Bibliography

1978

  • Bindman, David. The Complete Graphic Works of William Blake. London: Thames and Hudson, 1978.

Wikidata ID

Q65026661

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