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>
Ascent Mountain Purgatory
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
actions: postures and motions
adults
astronomy
characters
climbing
Dante
Dante, ‘Divine Comedy: Purgatorio’
Judaeo-Christian imagery
landscape
literary
literature (not Shakespeare)
literature and fiction
man
mountain
mythical, religious, fictional
people
places
poet
Purgatory
Purgatory
religion and belief
sea
seascapes and coasts
sun
Virgil
work and occupations
<p>In the 1820s Blake illustrated The Divine Comedy by the medieval poet Dante Alighieri. In this poem the pilgrim Dante, with Virgil (in blue), pass through hell and then climbs the Mount of Purgatory towards the Earthly Paradise on its summit.</p><p>The mountain was created when Satan fell from heaven into the earth’s centre. It rises at the opposite pole to the city of Jerusalem. Blake’s vision, in Jerusalem, of England in a fallen state has a parallel in Dante’s vision. Even seeing ‘clouds unfold’ is an optimistic sign of ultimate recovery from the fall.</p><p><em>Gallery label, December 2004</em></p>
paper unique graphite ink watercolour
8 July 2002 – 1 October 2003
2003-10-01
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-07-08
William Blake Body and Soul
Collection based display
8 July 2002 – 16 March 2003
2003-03-16
8 July 2002 – 16 March 2003
2003-03-16
2002-07-08
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-07-08
Body and Soul
Collection based display
6 December 2004 – 15 August 2005
2005-08-15
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2004-12-06
Blake and Jerusalem
Collection based display
18 October 2008 – 5 April 2009
2009-04-05
18 October 2008 – 19 April 2009
2009-04-19
2008-10-18
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2008-10-18
Blake and Collins
Collection based display
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)
2011-11-01
Blake Exhibition
Loan-out
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
The Ascent of the Mountain of Purgatory
support: 528 × 372 mm
frame: 757 × 590 × 22 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="para1">
<span class="text6">I</span><span class="text12">n the 1820s Blake      illustrated </span><span class="text15">The Divine Comedy</span><span class="text12"> by the medieval poet Dante Alighieri. In this poem the      pilgrim Dante, with Virgil (in blue), pass through hell and then climbs the      Mount of Purgatory towards the Earthly Paradise on its summit. </span>
</div>
<div class="para9">
<span class="text6">
<br/> </span>
</div>
<div class="para1">
<span class="text6">The mountain was created when Satan fell from heaven      into the earth’s centre.  It rises at the opposite pole to the city      of Jerusalem. Blake’s vision, in </span><span class="text16">Jerusalem</span><span class="text6">,  of England in a fallen state has a parallel in      Dante’s vision. Even seeing ‘clouds </span><span class="text13">unfold’ is an</span><span class="text6"> </span><span class="text13">optimistic sign of ultimate recovery from</span><span class="text6"> </span><span class="text14">the fall. </span>
</div>

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2004-12-21T00:00:00
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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-the-ascent-of-the-mountain-of-purgatory-n03366" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N03366</span></a> <b>The Ascent of the Mountain of Purgatory</b> 1824–7
<br/></p>
<p>N 03366 / B 812 <i>74</i>
<br/>Pencil, pen and watercolour 528×372 (20 3/4×14 5/8)
<br/>Inscribed ‘P-g-Canto 4’ in ink b.c. and, on reverse in pencil, ‘Pg Canto 8’ turned through a right-angle b.r.
<br/>Watermarked ‘WELGAR 1796’
<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 <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>
<br/>EXHIBITED RA 1893 (19); Tate Gallery (41 xvi), Manchester (48 xvi), Nottingham (42 ii) and Edinburgh (52) 1913–14; <i>English Painting</i> Paris 1938 (164); Tate Gallery 1947 (59)
<br/>LITERATURE Rossetti 1863, p.221 no.102e, and 1880, p.233 no.124c; Roe 1953, pp.142–3 no.74, repr.; Bindman 1977, p.218; Klonsky 1980, p.154, colour pl.76; Butlin 1981, p.579 no.812 <i>74</i>; Gizzi 1983, p.154 repr. <i>Also repr: Savoy</i>, no.4, August 1896, p.35
<br/></p>
<p>This is an illustration to <i>Purgatorio</i> IV, 31–45, like the previous work an event before the poets have arrived at Purgatory itself; Dante calls to Virgil in his weariness on the long climb up the Mountain of Purgatory. The sun is partly covered by cloud, as in all the scenes in Purgatory, and was originally drawn emerging over the horizon. The version of ‘The Laborious Passage along the Rocks’ in the British Museum may have originally been designed as an illustration to this scene in a horizontal format (Butlin 1981, no.812 <i>45</i>, repr. Roe 1953, pl.45, Klonsky 1980, pl.47 and Gizzi 1983, p.125).
<br/>
<br/>The graceful, echoing poses of Dante and Virgil recall those of the two brothers plucking grapes in the illustrations to Milton's <i>Comus</i>
of <i>c.</i>1801 and <i>c.</i>1815 (Butlin nos.527 <i>3</i> and 528 <i>3</i>, colour pls.618 and 626).</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
2004-07-16T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults astronomy characters climbing Dante Dante, ‘Divine Comedy: Purgatorio’ Judaeo-Christian imagery landscape literary literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) man mountain mythical, religious, fictional people places poet Purgatory Purgatory religion and belief sea seascapes and coasts sun Virgil work and occupations