''The Barque of Dante'' (), also ''Dante and Virgil in Hell'' (''Dante et Virgile aux enfers''), is the first major painting by the French artist

Eugène Delacroix Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( , ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: Britis ...

, and is a work signalling the shift in the character of narrative painting, from

Neo-Classicism Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism w ...

towards

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

. The painting loosely depicts events narrated in canto eight of

Dante's Dante's is a nightclub and live music venue in Portland, Oregon. The venue, located along West Burnside Street and owned by Frank Faillace, hosts a variety of acts ranging from burlesque to rock music. Dante's is housed in an unreinforced masonr ...

Inferno Inferno may refer to: * Hell, an afterlife place of suffering * Conflagration, a large uncontrolled fire Film * ''L'Inferno'', a 1911 Italian film * Inferno (1953 film), ''Inferno'' (1953 film), a film noir by Roy Ward Baker * Inferno (1973 fi ...

''; a leaden, smoky mist and the blazing City of the Dead form the backdrop against which the poet Dante fearfully endures his crossing of the

River Styx In Greek mythology, Styx (; grc, Στύξ ) is a river that forms the boundary between Earth (Gaia) and the Underworld. The rivers Acheron, Cocytus, Lethe, Phlegethon, and Styx all converge at the centre of the underworld on a great marsh, whi ...

. As his barque ploughs through waters heaving with tormented souls, Dante is steadied by

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...

, the learned poet of

Classical antiquity Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...

. Pictorially, the arrangement of a group of central, upright figures, and the rational arrangement of subsidiary figures in studied poses, all in horizontal planes, complies with the tenets of the cool and reflective Neo-Classicism that had dominated French painting for nearly four decades. ''The Barque of Dante'' was completed for the opening of the Salon of 1822, and currently hangs in the

Musée du Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

, Paris.

Themes

''The Barque of Dante'' was an artistically ambitious work, and although the composition is conventional, the painting in some important respects broke unmistakably free of the French Neo-Classical tradition. The smoke to the rear and the fierce movement of the garment in which the oarsman

Phlegyas In Greek mythology, Phlegyas (; Ancient Greek: Φλεγύας means 'fiery') was a king of the Lapiths (or the Phlegyans). Family Phlegyas was the son of Ares and Chryse, daughter of Halmus, or of Dotis. He was the brother of Ixion, anothe ...

is wrapped indicate a strong wind, and most of the individuals in the painting are facing into it. The river is choppy and the boat is lifted to the right, a point at which it is twisted toward the viewer. The party is driven to a destination known to be yet more inhospitable, by an oarsman whose sure-footed poise in the storm suggests his familiarity with these wild conditions. The city behind is a gigantic furnace. There is neither comfort nor a place of refuge in the painting's world of rage, insanity and despair. La colere

The painting explores the psychological states of the individuals it depicts, and uses compact, dramatic contrasts to highlight their different responses to their respective predicaments. Virgil's detachment from the tumult surrounding him, and his concern for Dante's well-being, is an obvious counterpoint to the latter's fear, anxiety, and physical state of imbalance. The damned are either rapt in a piercing concentration upon some mad and gainless task, or are else apparently in a state of total helplessness and loss. Their lining of the boat takes an up-and-down wave-like form, echoing the choppy water and making the foot of the painting a region of perilous instability. The souls to the far left and right are like grotesque

bookend The bookend is an object tall, sturdy, and heavy enough, when placed at either end of a row of upright books, to support or buttress them. Heavy bookends—made of wood, bronze, marble, and even large geodes—have been used in libraries, st ...

s, enclosing the action and adding a

claustrophobic Claustrophobia is the fear of confined spaces. It can be triggered by many situations or stimuli, including elevators, especially when crowded to capacity, windowless rooms, and hotel rooms with closed doors and sealed windows. Even bedrooms with ...

touch to the whole. Delacroix wrote that his best painting of a head in this picture is that of the soul reaching with his forearm from the far side into the boat. Both

Charles Le Brun Charles Le Brun (baptised 24 February 1619 – 12 February 1690) was a French painter, physiognomist, art theorist, and a director of several art schools of his time. As court painter to Louis XIV, who declared him "the greatest French artist of ...

's, ''La Colère'' of 1668, and

John Flaxman John Flaxman (6 July 1755 – 7 December 1826) was a British sculptor and draughtsman, and a leading figure in British and European Neoclassicism. Early in his career, he worked as a modeller for Josiah Wedgwood's pottery. He spent several ye ...

's line engraving ''The Fiery Sepulchres'', appearing as plate 11 in ''The Divine Poem of Dante Alighieri'', 1807, are likely sources for this head. The theatrical display of bold colours in the figures at the centre of the composition is striking. The red of Dante's

cowl A cowl is an item of clothing consisting of a long, hooded garment with wide sleeves, often worn by monks. Originally it may have referred simply to the hooded portion of a cloak. In contemporary usage, however, it is distinguished from a clo ...

resonates alarmingly with the fired mass behind him, and vividly contrasts with the billowing blue about Phlegyas. The author

Charles Blanc Charles Blanc (17 November 1813, Castres (Tarn) – 17 January 1882, Paris) was a French art critic. Life and career He was the younger brother of the French socialist politician and historian Louis Blanc. After the February Revolution of 184 ...

noted the white linen on Virgil's mantle, describing it as a 'great wake up in the middle of the dark, a flash in the tempest'. Adolphe Loève-Veimars commented on the contrast between the colours used in Dante's head, and in the depiction of the damned, concluding that all this 'leaves the soul with I know not what fell impression'.

Water drops on the damned

The drops of water running down the bodies of the damned are painted in a manner seldom seen up to and including the early nineteenth century. Four different, unmixed pigments, in discretely applied quantities comprise the image of one drop and its shadow. White is used for highlighting, strokes of yellow and green respectively denote the length of the drop, and the shadow is red. Delacroix's pupil and chief assistant of over a decade, Pierre Andrieu, recorded that Delacroix had told him the inspiration for these drops had come in part from the water drops visible on the nereids in Rubens' '' The Landing of Marie de' Medici at Marseilles'', and that the drops on ''The Barque of Dante'' were Delacroix's point of departure as a colourist. Lee Johnson discussing these drops comments that "the analytical principle elacroixapplies of dividing into pure coloured components an object that to the average eye would appear monochrome or colourless, is of far-reaching significance for the future."

Background

In a letter to his sister, Madame

Henriette de Verninac Henriette de Verninac (1780–1827) was the daughter of Charles-François Delacroix, minister of Foreign Affairs under the Directory, and wife of the diplomat Raymond de Verninac Saint-Maur. She is known as the subject of a portrait by Jacques-Lou ...

, written in 1821, Delacroix speaks of his desire to paint for the Salon the following year, and to 'gain a little recognition'. In April 1822 he wrote to his friend Charles Soulier that he had been working hard and non-stop for two and a half months to precisely that end. The Salon opened on April 24, 1822 and Delacroix's painting was exhibited under the title ''Dante et Virgile conduits par Phlégias, traversent le lac qui entoure les murailles de la ville infernale de Dité''. The intense labour that was required to complete this painting in time left Delacroix weak and in need of recuperation. Critics expressed a range of opinions about ''The Barque of Dante''. One of the judges at the Salon,

Étienne-Jean Delécluze Etienne-Jean Delécluze () (26 February 1781 – 12 July 1863) was a French painter and critic. From 1797 on, he was a pupil of Jacques-Louis David, as he describes in his biography of David. As one of his favorite pupils, he was invited t ...

, was uncomplimentary, calling the work 'a real daub' (''une vraie tartouillade''). Another judge, Antoine-Jean Gros, thought highly of it, describing it a 'chastened Rubens'. An anonymous reviewer in ''Le Miroir'' expected Delacroix to become a 'distinguished colourist'. One particularly favourable piece of criticism from up-and-coming lawyer Adolphe Thiers received wide circulation in the liberal periodical ''Le Constitutionnel''. In the summer of 1822, the French State purchased the painting for 2000 Francs, and moved it to the

Musée du Luxembourg The Musée du Luxembourg () is a museum at 19 rue de Vaugirard in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. Established in 1750, it was initially an art museum located in the east wing of the Luxembourg Palace (the matching west wing housed the Marie de' ...

. Delacroix was delighted on hearing the news, although he feared the piece would be less admired for being viewed at close quarters. Some two year later he revisited the painting, reporting that it gave him much pleasure, but describing it as being insufficiently vigorous; a deficiency he had identified in the painting he was working on at the time, '' The Massacre at Chios''. The painting was moved in 1874—eleven years after the death of the artist—to its present location, the

References

External links

''Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863): Paintings, Drawings, and Prints from North American Collections''
a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which discusses ''The Barque of Dante'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Barque of Dante 1822 paintings Paintings based on works by Dante Alighieri Hell in popular culture Paintings by Eugène Delacroix Paintings in the Louvre by French artists Cultural depictions of Dante Alighieri Cultural depictions of Virgil Maritime paintings Works based on Inferno (Dante) Nude art

Themes

Water drops on the damned

Background

See also

References

External links