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>
Homer and Ancient Poets
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
cliff
cloud
creativity
Dante
Dante, ‘Divine Comedy: Inferno’
despair
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
figure
five senses - five poets
flying
Hell
Hell
Judaeo-Christian imagery
landscape
Limbo
Limbo
literary
literature (not Shakespeare)
literature and fiction
mysticism
mythical, religious, fictional
named individuals
objects
Ovid
people
places
poet
religion and belief
spirit
sword
symbols and personifications
Virgil
weapons
weather
wooded
work and occupations
<p>This image depicts the first circle of Hell in Dante’s ‘Inferno’ (the first part in his poem, <span>The Divine Comedy) </span>– Dante and Virgil look down from a cliff into ‘Limbo’, where they see a group of ancient Greek and Roman poets, including Homer. According to Dante’s Roman Catholic theology, Limbo was a place for virtuous non-Christians (like the poets) who did not deserve eternal damnation. Homer is shown holding a sword, perhaps in reference to his poetry celebrating the Trojan war. Blake was opposed to war and described the Greek and Roman poets as 'slaves of the sword.’</p><p><em>Gallery label, October 2023</em></p>
paper unique graphite ink watercolour
15 October 2001 – 7 July 2002
2002-07-07
15 October 2001 – 7 July 2002
2002-07-07
2001-10-15
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-10-15
William Blake and His Followers
Collection based display
15 August 2007 – 18 November 2007
2007-11-18
15 August 2007 – 18 November 2007
2007-11-18
2007-08-15
Wordsworth Trust (Grasmere, UK)
http://www.wordsworth.org.uk
2007-08-15
Dante Rediscovered
Loan-out
1 November 2011 – 21 October 2012
2012-10-21
1 November 2011 – 19 February 2012
2012-02-19
2011-11-01
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow, Russia)
3 July 2012 – 21 October 2012
2012-10-21
2012-07-03
Fundació “la Caixa” (Madrid, Spain)
2011-11-01
Blake Exhibition
Loan-out
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
11 September 2019 – 31 May 2020
2020-05-31
11 September 2019 – 16 February 2020
2020-02-16
2019-09-11
Musée du Luxembourg (Paris, France)
29 February 2020 – 31 May 2020
2020-05-31
2020-02-29
External
2019-09-11
Gainsborough to Turner: The Golden Age of English Painting
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
Homer and the Ancient Poets
support: 371 × 528 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>This image depicts the first circle of Hell in Dante’s ‘Inferno’ (the first part in his poem, <i>The Divine Comedy) </i>– Dante and Virgil look down from a cliff into ‘Limbo’, where they see a group of ancient Greek and Roman poets, including Homer. According to Dante’s Roman Catholic theology, Limbo was a place for virtuous non-Christians (like the poets) who did not deserve eternal damnation. Homer is shown holding a sword, perhaps in reference to his poetry celebrating the Trojan war. Blake was opposed to war and described the Greek and Roman poets as 'slaves of the sword.’ </p>
</div>

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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-homer-and-the-ancient-poets-n03353" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N03353</span></a> <b>Homer and the Ancient Poets</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>; <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>-<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 03353 / B 812 <i>8</i>
<br/>Pencil, pen and watercolour 371×528 (14 9/16×20 3/4)
<br/>Inscribed ‘HELL Canto 4’ in ink over pencil b.r. and, on reverse in pencil, ‘N 13 next at p 78’ t.c. and ‘14’ t.r., both turned through a right-angle, and ‘N 13 next at p 78’ in centre 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 As for <span>N03351</span>
<br/>EXHIBITED Tate Gallery (41 iii), Manchester (48 iii), Nottingham (42 viii) and Edinburgh (60) 1913–14; Tate Gallery 1947 (60)
<br/>LITERATURE Rossetti 1863, p.227 no.101i, and 1880, p.228 no.123i; Roe 1953, pp.60–1 no.8, repr.; Blunt 1959, pp.89–90; Klonsky 1977, p.116, repr.; Klonsky 1980, pp.138–9, colour pl.8; Gizzi 1983, p.86 repr.; Fuller in <i>Art History</i> 1988, pp.360, 372 n.17
<br/></p>
<p>An illustration to <i>Inferno</i> IV, 8–12, 29–30 and 64–94, a scene in the first of the nine circles of Hell, Limbo. Blake combines the incident of Virgil and Dante looking down into the abyss thick with cloud with that of their first seeing the ancient poets by the light of the fire.
<br/>
<br/>Dante lists only four poets, Homer, Horace, Ovid and Lucan. Roe suggests that Blake added the fifth figure to equate the poets with the five senses, holding them to be embodiments of rational as opposed to divine inspiration. Blake's opinion of the ancient poets is given in the inscription on 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> preceding this one in the series, in which Homer is the central figure: ‘round Purgatory is Paradise &amp; round Paradise is Vacuum or Limbo, so that Homer is the Center of All [;] I mean the Poetry of the Heathen Stolen &amp; Perverted from the Bible not by Chance but by design by the Kings of Persia &amp; their Generals The Greek Heroes &amp; lastly by the Romans’ (Fogg Museum; Butlin 1981, no.8127, repr. Roe 1953, Klonsky 1980 and Gizzi 1983, all as pl.7). Blake saw the Greek and Roman poets as ‘Slaves of the Sword’, their art being subservient to war-like governments (preface to <i>Milton</i> <i>c.</i>1800–10, c.f. also <i>On Homer's Poetry</i> and <i>On Virgil</i>, <i>c.</i>1820; Keynes <i>Writings</i>
1957, pp.480, 778). Blake shows the poets in a Grove, a symbol of error which prevents them from seeing the flying Daughters of Imagination. Blake regards the pastoral figures making music in the Arcadian scene to the right in a more favourable light than he does the poets.
<br/>
<br/>Fuller accepts that here Blake is attacking Dante's view that, although the classical poets are in Hell because they lacked the Christian faith, they are to be admired for their ethics and philosophy. He points out that, contrary to Roe's suggestion, the figures floating in the sky are derived from Dante's original text.</p>
<p>
<br/><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 cliff cloud creativity Dante Dante, ‘Divine Comedy: Inferno’ despair emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas figure five senses - five poets flying Hell Hell Judaeo-Christian imagery landscape Limbo Limbo literary literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) mysticism mythical, religious, fictional named individuals objects Ovid people places poet religion and belief spirit sword symbols and personifications Virgil weapons weather wooded work and occupations