Dante in British Art, 1770-1830

Dante Alighieri's epic poem with its striking images of the punishments and rewards awaiting man's entry into the afterlife was translated into English for the first time in the 18th century and finally in the 1770s used as the source for a major British painting. With the 1773 exhibition of his Ugolino, Joshua Reynolds established the frontal, wide-eyed type which became the standard for Ugolino illustrations in England and on the continent for the following century. Henry Fuseli's Paolo and Francesca of 1786 was the first British painting to depict the historical setting of the discovery of the two lovers, while the swirling figures of Paolo and Francesca in hell were chosen by Fuseli, John Flaxman and William Blake to emphasize the passionate aspect of the pitiful tale. The popularity of the Ugolino and Paolo and Francesca episodes from the Inferno is directly connected to the artistic theory of the Sublime. Because Blake was the last of the generation of British artists whose ideas were based on this aesthetic, this study examines the period beginning with Reynolds' Ugolino and ending with Blake's series of Dante drawings and engravings. All known depictions of Dante's themes done between 1770 and 1830 in Britain are documented. Individual Dante episodes are discussed in relation to each artist's knowledge of the poet, involvement in the circle of British men promoting Italian art and culture, use of iconographic and stylistic prototypes, and influence on other artists. Flaxman's Divine Comedy engravings are emphasized as they are the only complete cycle of Dante designs produced in this period and certainly the best known to the contemporary audience. Blake's series, although incomplete and uneven in quality, is seen as an important example of the general and pervasive impact of 18th-century ideas of the Sublime, as well as the unique instance of a poet/artist illustrating Dante's work. In addition, the concepts uniting late 18th and early 19th-century illustrators of the Divine Comedy are explored with the hope of establishing a greater understanding of the age, of the ideas of historicism and the appropriateness of style and content, and of the attitudes toward literary illustration.