Every painter should have a suit of armour hanging in their studio, and those of German Romantics, Pre-Raphaelites and others, of Don Quixote.
narrative
Worn by Mars, Athena/Minerva and Bellona, it also featured in the war against Troy. It was worn by Joan of Arc, and by Lovis Corinth too.
Passing Minos, who directs the dead to the right circle for their sins, they enter the circle for those guilty of lust. There they hear the story of Paolo and Francesca and their violent deaths.
Dante and Virgil enter the first circle of Hell, Limbo, where those who never sinned but weren’t baptised in the Christian faith are confined.
While other uncouth figures fought with their clubs, animal skins appealed to a different group, as John Godward’s beauties draped their bodies on them.
That well-muscled man brandishing a large olive-wood club and wearing a lion-skin can only be the ultimate high-testosterone uncouth hero, Hercules.
Virgil leads Dante through the gate of Hell, with its inscription ‘Abandon hope all ye who enter here’. Charon is persuaded to carry them across with the souls of the dead to enter Hell.
Dante is wandering lost in a dark wood, his way out obstructed by wild animals. He asks a man to help, only to discover he’s the ghost of Virgil and they’re on their way to Hell.
If there’s one book every head of state and leader should read, it’s Dante’s Inferno. Introduction to a new series showing paintings of this first part of his Divine Comedy.
Overview and full contents of all 74 articles in this series, from creation out of chaos and the flood, to the death of Julius Caesar and Emperor Augustus.
The Eclectic Light Company 