Graphite, ink and watercolour on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Art Fund
Illustrations to Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/william-blake-39" aria-label="More by William Blake" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">William Blake</a>
Dante and Virgil Penetrating Forest
Purchased with the assistance of a special grant from the National Gallery and donations from the Art Fund, Lord Duveen and others, and presented through the Art Fund 1919
abstract concepts
actions: postures and motions
adults
characters
Dante
Dante, ‘Divine Comedy: Inferno’
error - oak tree
forest
landscape
literature (not Shakespeare)
literature and fiction
man
oak
people
symbols and personifications
Virgil
walking
<p>Blake was greatly inspired by the medieval poet Dante. He produced 102 watercolours illustrating Dante’s poem <span>The Divine Comedy,</span> which imagines a pilgrimage through hell, purgatory and paradise. This watercolour is the second in the series (several other illustrations are shown nearby). Blake depicts the moment when the ancient Roman poet Virgil (in blue) comes to Dante (in red) to guide him safely on his journey. The work is unfinished, but Blake used some light blue and green washes for the sunny regions. He uses carbon black for the wood that lies ominously ahead of the figures.</p><p><em>Gallery label, October 2023</em></p>
paper unique graphite ink watercolour
24 November 2003 – 22 November 2004
2004-11-22
10 November 2003
2003-11-10
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2003-11-24
William Blake the Painter at Work
Collection based display
13 May 2013 – 6 October 2013
2013-10-06
13 May 2013 – 6 October 2013
2013-10-06
2013-05-13
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2013-05-13
Landscape in Blake
Collection based display
4 December 2014 – 1 March 2015
2015-03-01
4 December 2014 – 1 March 2015
2015-03-01
2014-12-04
Ashmolean Museum (Oxford, UK)
http://www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/
2014-12-04
William Blake, Apprentice and Master
Loan-out
17 April 2023 – 12 May 2024
2024-05-12
17 April 2023 – 12 May 2024
2024-05-12
2023-04-17
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2023-04-17
Blake
Collection based display
Dante and Virgil Penetrating the Forest
support: 371 × 527 mm
Purchased with the assistance of a special grant from the National Gallery and donations from the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a>, Lord Duveen and others, and presented through the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 1919
<div class="text">
<p>Blake was greatly inspired by the medieval poet Dante. He produced 102 watercolours illustrating Dante’s poem <i>The Divine Comedy,</i> which imagines a pilgrimage through hell, purgatory and paradise. This watercolour is the second in the series (several other illustrations are shown nearby). Blake depicts the moment when the ancient Roman poet Virgil (in blue) comes to Dante (in red) to guide him safely on his journey. The work is unfinished, but Blake used some light blue and green washes for the sunny regions. He uses carbon black for the wood that lies ominously ahead of the figures. </p>
</div>

Display caption
2023-10-26T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-dante-and-virgil-penetrating-the-forest-n03351" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N03351</span></a> <b>Dante and Virgil Penetrating the Forest</b> 1824–7 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-the-circle-of-the-lustful-francesca-da-rimini-the-whirlwind-of-lovers-a00005" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>A00005</span></a>-<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-dante-striking-against-bocca-degli-abati-a00011" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>A00011</span></a>; <span>N03351</span>-<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-dante-in-the-empyrean-drinking-at-the-river-of-light-n03370" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N03370</span></a>; <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-the-circle-of-the-lustful-francesca-da-rimini-the-whirlwind-of-lovers-t01950" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T01950</span></a>-<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/blake-dante-striking-against-bocca-degli-abati-t01956" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T01956</span></a>; complete]
<br/></p>
<p>N 03351 / B 812<i>2</i>
<br/>Pencil, pen and watercolour 371×527 (14 9/16×20 3/4)
<br/>Inscribed ‘HELL Canto 2 line 140’ b.r. in pencil,? not by Blake, and, on reverse in pencil, ‘92’ t.r., ‘N37 next at p 71’ t.c. and ‘Hell Canto 22’ along right-hand edge as seen with the paper turned through a right-angle Watermarked ‘WE’
<br/>Purchased with the assistance of a special grant from the National Gallery and donations from the National Art-Collections Fund, Lord Duveen and others, and presented through the National Art-Collections Fund 1919
<br/>PROVENANCE John Linnell; his heirs, sold Christie's 15 March 1918 (in 148, the entire Dante series) £7,665 bt Martin for the donors
<br/>EXHIBITED Tate Gallery (41 i), Manchester (48i), Nottingham (42 vi) and Edinburgh (56) 1913–14, as ‘Tu duca, tu signore, e tu maestro’
<br/>LITERATURE Rossetti 1863, p.216 no.101b, and 1880, p.227 no.123b; Roe 1953, pp.50–1 no.2, repr.; Klonsky 1980, p.137, pl.2; Butlin 1981, p.556 no.812 2; Gizzi 1983, p.80 repr. <i>Also repr.: Savoy</i>, no.3, July 1896, p.43
<br/></p>
<p>This is an illustration to <i>Inferno</i> II, 139–42. Dante, in the midst of his mortal life, has found himself lost in a great forest and pursued by three beasts. He encounters Virgil who offers to lead Dante to safety, telling him that this entails a journey through Hell and Purgatory to Paradise. In this design, the second of the series, Virgil leads Dante on through the forest. The title under which the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> has sometimes been known is a line from the appropriate text, ‘Tu duca, tu signore, e tu maestro’. Blake shows the trees as oaks, perhaps to represent Druidical error.
<br/></p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin, <i>William Blake 1757-1827</i>, Tate Gallery Collections, V, London 1990
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-05T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstract concepts actions: postures and motions adults characters Dante Dante, ‘Divine Comedy: Inferno’ error - oak tree forest landscape literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) man oak people symbols and personifications Virgil walking