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>
Inscription over Gate
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
arm / arms raised
characters
Dante
Dante, ‘Divine Comedy: Inferno’
emotion - red cloak
emotional states and conditions
fire
Hell
Hell
hill
inscriptions
Judaeo-Christian imagery
landscape
literary
literature (not Shakespeare)
literature and fiction
man
mythical, religious, fictional
natural phenomena
people
phrase
places
poet
religion and belief
river
symbols and personifications
tree
Virgil
water: inland
wisdom - blue cloak
work and occupations
<p>In his Divine Comedy, Dante describes the pilgrimage he made with the poet Virgil, travelling into Hell, up the Mountain of Purgatory to reach Paradise at last. Entering the Gate of Hell was a moment when Dante (in red) wept with fear.</p><p>Dante describes the ‘dim’ colours which contribute to his terror. Blake’s dark shadows of pure black pigment next to areas of unpainted white paper contribute to this. He used Prussian blue for the blue areas, and indigo blue mixed with yellow for the green foliage, so that they contrast. The blue, green and vermilion red do not overlap.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 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
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
1 April 2006 – 16 April 2007
2007-04-16
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2006-04-01
Blake in the 1940s
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 April 2015
2015-04-06
13 May 2013 – 6 April 2015
2015-04-06
2013-05-13
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2013-05-13
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
The Inscription over the Gate
support: 527 × 374 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="para3">
<span class="text17">In his </span><span class="text18">Divine Comedy</span><span class="text17">, Dante describes  the pilgrimage he made with the poet </span><span class="text15">
</span><span class="text16">Virgil, travelling into Hell,      up the Mountain of Purgatory to reach Paradise at last. Entering the Gate      of Hell was a moment when Dante </span><span class="text15">(in red) wept      with fear. </span>
</div>
<div class="para9">
<span class="text15">
<br/> </span>
</div>
<div class="para3">
<span class="text15">Dante describes the ‘dim’ colours which </span><span class="text16">contribute to his terror. Blake’s dark shadows</span><span class="text15"> </span><span class="text17">of pure black pigment next to      areas of </span><span class="text16">unpainted white <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a> contribute to      this. He</span><span class="text15"> used Prussian blue for the blue areas,      and indigo blue mixed with yellow for the green f</span><span class="text17">oliage, so that they contrast. The blue, green and vermilion red      do not overlap.</span><span class="text15">
<br/> </span>
</div>

Display caption
2004-09-09T00:00:00
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-the-inscription-over-the-gate-n03352" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N03352</span></a> <b>The Inscription over the Gate</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 03352 / B 812 <i>4</i>
<br/>Chalk, pencil, pen and watercolour 527×374 (20 3/4×14 3/4)
<br/>Signed ‘WB’ b.l. and inscribed ‘HELL Canto 3’ b.r. in ink and ‘Lasciate ogni speranza voi che inentrate [?-the last word is obscure] Leave every hope you who in enter’ in pencil, reinforced and ?over an erased inscription, at top, and, on reverse in pencil, ‘No 1 next at p 4’ t.c. and ‘3’ t.r.
<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 RA 1893 (1); Tate (41 ii), Manchester (48 ii), Nottingham (42 vii) and Edinburgh (59) 1913–14; Paris (repr.) and Vienna 1937 (18); Paris, Antwerp (pl.16), Zurich and Tate (repr.) 1947 (29 i); <i>National Art-Collections Fund: Sixty Years of Patronage</i> Arts Council, September–October 1965 (34); Tate Gallery 1978 (319, repr.); Pescara 1983 (1, repr. in colour)</p>
<p>LITERATURE Rossetti 1863, p.216 no.101d, and 1880, p.227 no.123d: Roc 1953, pp.53–4 no.4, repr.: Blunt 1959, p.90, pl.58a; Bindman 1977, pp.216–17, pl.176; Klonsky 1980, p.138, colour pl.4; Butlin 1981, pp.556–7 no.812 <i>4</i>; Gizzi 1983, p.82 repr., and in colour p.53; Warner 1984, p.112; Fuller in <i>Art History</i> 1988, p.372 n.17</p>
<p></p>
<p>This is an illustration to <i>Inferno</i> III, 1–21. Virgil leads Dante over the threshold of Hell. The inscription over the gate as written by Blake does not correspond exactly with Dante's text, which reads ‘Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'entrate’; it was presumably quoted from memory. The literal translation is Blake's own.
<br/>
<br/>Roe suggests that Blake here equates Dante's Hell with the created world as opposed to the world of the spirit. One sees the four continents together with the <i>submerged Atlantis</i>. Fuller disputes this equation with the created world, pointing out that in his later work Blake accepted material creation as a divine mercy and also that the inscription over Hell-Gate would hardly be appropriate for this world.</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 arm / arms raised characters Dante Dante, ‘Divine Comedy: Inferno’ emotional states and conditions emotion - red cloak fire Hell Hell hill inscriptions Judaeo-Christian imagery landscape literary literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) man mythical, religious, fictional natural phenomena people phrase places poet religion and belief river symbols and personifications tree Virgil water: inland wisdom - blue cloak work and occupations