Dante's Inferno: The Third Circle of Hell (Gluttons)
Artist
Gustave Doré
(French, 1832-1883)
Date1861
MediumBlack and gray wash on paper
DimensionsOverall: 30 x 41 1/2 x 2 1/2 in. (76.2 x 105.4 x 6.4 cm)
ClassificationsEuropean art
Credit LineMuseum purchase, Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., Art Purchase Fund
Object number2008.10
Terms
- Dante
- Hell
- glutton
- Black
- Gray
- White
On View
Not on viewLabel TextGustave Doré French, 1832–1883 Dante’s Inferno: The Third Circle of Hell (Gluttons), 1861 Black and grey wash on paper The Inferno, Dante Alighieri’s poetic odyssey through the Circles of Hell, served as an inexhaustible source of darkly dramatic scenes for Romantic artists like Gustave Doré. Dante’s Third Circle was reserved for those who committed the sin of gluttony in life and were condemned to eternal suffering in a barren wasteland of freezing rain and snow. In Dore’s drawing, Dante and his guide, the poet Virgil, survey the grisly scene—a ghostly moonscape where the undead writhe in perpetual pain. Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., Art Purchase Fund 2008.10
