Dante and Virgil looking down upon souls in torment in the inferno, 1863. Artist: Gustave Doré

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Dante and Virgil looking down upon souls in torment in the inferno, 1863. Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) was a great admirer of Virgil, and in his Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy), Virgil accompanies Dante through Purgatory and Inferno. From Inferno, first part of Divina Commedia. Canto XIV: third compartment of the seventh circle where three kinds of violence punished; against God, against Nature and against Art. 'Unceasing was the play of wretched hands,/ Now this, now that way glancing to shake off/The heat, still falling fresh'. From an edition illustrated by Gustave Dore.

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Size: 3730px × 2895px
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Photo credit: © Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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