In the late 19th century painters turned attention to depicting rainy conditions, with Caillebotte’s closely observed views, and effects on colour.
van der Straet
The final canto of the Inferno takes Dante to see Lucifer himself, after which Virgil guides him back to the surface of earth.
Count Ugolino was a leading and treacherous politician, who could only be trusted to betray others. He was left to die in prison of starvation.
From the fraudsters in the last rottenpocket of the eighth circle of Hell, they move on the ninth circle of the treacherous – a frozen lake. Paintings by Doré, Blake, Bouguereau, and Fuseli.
From thieves, Dante and Virgil move on to meet souls of those who had committed fraud, including Ulysses, a headless troubadour, and an alchemist.
From barrators, being hacked at by a pack of devils in their boiling tar, through hypocrites wearing habits weighted with lead, to thieves being tormented by snakes. Sheer hell.
A Bolognese man who pimped his sister, Jason of Golden Fleece fame, a couple of popes, and assorted astrologers – all suffering for their sins.
Dante and Virgil pass the Minotaur and move into the seventh circle, where murderers and highwaymen are immersed in boiling blood, and Harpies torment those who took their own lives.
Here, the rain comes down in sheets, with snow and large hailstones. First an encounter with the three-headed monster dog Cerberus, then a chat with an old acquaintance.
