Graphite, ink and watercolour on paper. verso: chalk 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>
Hypocrites with Caiaphas a Stooping Figure
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
bending forward
Bible: New Testament
Caiaphas
characters
cloak
clothing and personal items
crime and punishment
crucifixion
Dante
Dante, ‘Divine Comedy: Inferno’
devil
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
figure
flying
group
groups
Hell
Hell
high priest
hill
Judaeo-Christian imagery
landscape
literary
literature (not Shakespeare)
literature and fiction
male
man
mythical, religious, fictional
nudes
objects
people
places
poet
religion and belief
religious
society
suffering
talking
universal religious imagery
Virgil
work and occupations
<p>In 1824 Blake began work on a commission to illustrate the Divine Comedy, by the fourteenth-century poet, Dante. In this poem, Dante is guided by the classical poet Virgil through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory, and then Paradise.</p><p>Most of Blake’s illustrations are for the first part, Inferno, showing sinners being punished. Here, Dante and Virgil (right) watch the hypocrites, wearing lead-lined cloaks, filing past the high priest Caiaphas, who is nailed to a cross on the ground. Caiaphas was the priest who said that Christ should die. Each hypocrite steps on Caiaphas as he passes.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
paper unique graphite ink watercolour chalk
24 March 2003 – 17 November 2003
2003-11-17
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2003-03-24
Blake and Illustration
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
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
The Hypocrites with Caiaphas. Verso: Sketch of a Stooping Figure
support: 373 × 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>
    In 1824 Blake began work on a commission to illustrate the Divine Comedy, by the fourteenth-century poet, Dante. In this  poem,      Dante is guided by 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/c/classicism" title="Glossary definition for 'Classicism'"><span>classical</span></a>  poet Virgil      through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory, and then Paradise.  </div>
<div>
<br/> </div>
<div>
    Most of Blake’s illustrations are for the  first part, Inferno, showing sinners being punished. Here, Dante and Virgil      (right)  watch the hypocrites, wearing lead-lined cloaks, filing past the      high priest Caiaphas, who is nailed to a cross on the ground. Caiaphas was      the priest who said that  Christ should die. Each hypocrite steps  on Caiaphas as he passes.  </div>

Display caption
2004-08-18T00:00:00
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/sargent-san-vigilio-lago-di-garda-n03559" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N03559</span></a> <b>The Hypocrites with Caiaphas</b> 1824–7 (recto)
<br/><b>Sketch of a Stooping Figure</b> 1824–7 (verso) [<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 03559 / B 812 <i>44</i>
<br/>Recto: pencil, pen and watercolour; Verso: pencil, approx, 140×55 (5 1/2×2 1/4); on paper 373×527 (14 5/8×20 3/4)
<br/>Inscribed ‘HELL Canto 23’ in ink b.r. and, on reverse in pencil, ‘71’ t.l., ‘N38 next at p 72’ t.c. turned through a right-angle and again in centre upside down, and ‘Hell Canto 23 V 40’ upside down 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-the-bard-from-gray-n03551" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N03551</span></a>
<br/>EXHIBITED Tate Gallery (41 x), Manchester (48 x), Nottingham (42 xv) and Edinburgh (66) 1913–14; <i>John Flaxman</i>, Hamburg Kunsthalle (207, recto repr.), Thorwaldsens Muscum, Copenhagen (no catalogue) and RA (198, recto repr.) April–December 1979
<br/>LITERATURE Rossetti 1863, p.219 no.101q<sup>1</sup>, and 1880, p.230 no.123q<sup>1</sup>; Blunt in <i>Warburg Journal</i>, VI, 1943, p.211, recto pl.62b; Roe 1953, pp.98–100 no.44, recto repr.; Blunt 1959, pp.40, 90, recto pl.61a; Klonsky 1977, p.117, recto repr.; Klonsky 1980, pp.147–8, recto repr. pl.46; Butlin 1981, pp.569–70 no.812 <i>44</i>; Gizzi 1983, p.124 recto repr.; Fuller in <i>Art History</i> 1988, p.358
<br/></p>
<p>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/r/recto-verso" title="Glossary definition for 'Recto / Verso'"><span>recto</span></a> is an illustration to <i>Inferno</i> XXIII, 58–120. Virgil and Dante have just escaped from the escort of demons shown in <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gore-from-a-window-in-cambrian-road-richmond-n03558" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N03558</span></a> and who are shown flying off above. Dante and Virgil are now in the sixth trench of the eighth circle, where the hypocrites, clad in leaden cloaks, file endlessly past Caiaphas who is staked to the ground in the shape of a cross. Caiaphas was the high priest who counselled that Christ should be put to death on the grounds that it was expedient that one man should die for the people rather than that the whole nation should perish. Each hypocrite steps on Caiaphas as they pass. For Blake Caiaphas embodied Natural, that is negative, religion; see <i>Jerusalem</i>, <i>c.</i>1804–18, plate 77 (Keynes <i>Writings</i> 1957, p.718).
<br/>
<br/>The sketch on the reverse (at the bottom with the page held vertically) appears to show a figure similar to that in ‘Death's Door’, plate 15 of <i>Four Children: The Gates of Paradise</i>, 1793, reissued <i>c.</i>1818 (repr. Keynes <i>Writings</i> 1957, p.769). The motif was presumably taken up again by Blake for the pose of the stooping hypocrites, though there is no suggestion in this sketch of their hooded cloaks.</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 bending forward Bible: New Testament Caiaphas characters cloak clothing and personal items crime and punishment crucifixion Dante Dante, ‘Divine Comedy: Inferno’ devil emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas figure flying group groups Hell Hell high priest hill Judaeo-Christian imagery landscape literary literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) male man mythical, religious, fictional nudes objects people places poet religion and belief religious society suffering talking universal religious imagery Virgil work and occupations