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>
Plutus
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: expressive
actions: postures and motions
adults
avarice
characters
classical myths: gods and heroes
crouching
Dante
Dante, ‘Divine Comedy: Inferno’
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
fire
gesticulating
Hell
Hell
Judaeo-Christian imagery
linking arms
literary
literature (not Shakespeare)
literature and fiction
male
man
miscellaneous
money
mythical, religious, fictional
natural phenomena
nudes
objects
people
places
Plutus
poet
religion and belief
Virgil
work and occupations
<p>In Dante’s text Plutus, the god of riches, guards the souls of the avaricious. Evoking a belief commonly held at the time that the Jewish race was characterised by an unscrupulous desire for wealth, Blake’s figure has features that recall 18th-century images of Jews.</p><p>Anti-Semitism permeated Lavater’s system of physiognomy, and was influenced by his personal interpretation of the Christian faith. At one stage Lavater argued that in order to achieve a higher level of existence, Jews must convert to Christianity, after which their features would begin to shed their Jewish characteristics.</p><p><em>Gallery label, March 2011</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
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
11 November 2010 – 3 April 2011
2011-04-03
11 November 2010 – 3 April 2011
2011-04-03
2010-11-11
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2010-11-11
Blake and Physiognomy
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
20 April 2015 – 7 May 2017
2017-05-07
20 April 2015 – 7 May 2017
2017-05-07
2015-04-20
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2015-04-20
William Blake
Collection based display
11 September 2019 – 2 February 2020
2020-02-02
11 September 2019 – 2 February 2020
2020-02-02
2019-09-11
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2019-09-11
William Blake: The Artist
Exhibition
29 October 2024 – 30 September 2025
2025-09-30
30 October 2024 – 2 February 2025
2025-02-02
2024-10-30
Reggia di Venaria Reale (Turin, Italy)
1 September 2025 – 31 January 2026
2026-01-31
2025-09-01
Museum of Fine Arts (Budapest, Hungary)
1 March 2026 – 31 August 2026
2026-08-31
2026-03-01
External
2024-10-29
William Blake and the Age of Romantic Fantasy: British Art & Imagination
Loan-out
Plutus
support: 527 × 371 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
<p>In Dante’s text Plutus, the god of riches, guards the souls of the avaricious. Evoking a belief commonly held at the time that the Jewish race was characterised by an unscrupulous desire for wealth, Blake’s figure has features that recall 18th-century images of Jews. 
<br/>
<br/>Anti-Semitism permeated Lavater’s system of physiognomy, and was influenced by his personal interpretation of the Christian faith. At one stage Lavater argued that in order to achieve a higher level of existence, Jews must convert to Christianity, after  which their features would begin to shed their Jewish characteristics. 
<br/></p>

Display caption
2011-03-18T00:00:00
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-plutus-n03355" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N03355</span></a> <b>Plutus</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 03355 / B 812 <i>14</i>
<br/>Pencil, pen and watercolour 527×371 (20 3/4×14 5/8)
<br/>Inscribed ‘Money’ in pencil on sack b.l. and, on reverse in pencil, with page upside down, ‘93’ t.l.
<br/>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 1942 (62); <i>National Art-Collections Fund: Sixty Years of Patronage</i>, Arts Council, September–October 1965 (35)</p>
<p>LITERATURE Rossetti 1863, p.217 no.101n, and 1880, p.228 no.123n; Roe 1953, pp.68–9 no.14, repr.; Klonsky 1980, p.140, pl.14: Butlin 1981, p.560 no.812 <i>14</i>; Gizzi 1983, p.92 repr.; Fuller in <i>Art History</i> 1988, p.365</p>
<p></p>
<p>This is an illustration to <i>Inferno</i> VI, 113–15, and VII, 1–12. Plutus, the God of Wealth, guards the edge of the fourth Circle, that of the Avaricious, clutching his money-sack. Dante blurred the distinction between Plutus and Pluto, the God of the Underworld.
<br/>
<br/>As Klonsky points out, Blake had attacked money in one of the inscriptions on his <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/engraving" title="Glossary definition for 'Engraving'"><span>engraving</span></a> of ‘The Laocoön’ of <i>c</i>.1820 (repr. Bindman <i>Graphic Works</i> 1978, pl.623, and Essick <i>Separate Plates</i> 1983, pl.51): ‘Where any view of Money exists Art cannot be carried on, but War only’.</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
actions: expressive actions: postures and motions adults avarice characters classical myths: gods and heroes crouching Dante Dante, ‘Divine Comedy: Inferno’ emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas fire gesticulating Hell Hell Judaeo-Christian imagery linking arms literary literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) male man miscellaneous money mythical, religious, fictional natural phenomena nudes objects people places Plutus poet religion and belief Virgil work and occupations