The Barque of Dante

Common card · No. 363062

The Barque of Dante (French: La barque de Dante), also known as Dante and Virgil (French: Dante et Virgile), is an 1822 oil painting by the French artist Eugène Delacroix, now in the Louvre. The painting is based on Canto VIII of Dante Alighieri's poem Inferno, depicting Dante and his companion Virgil crossing the river Styx on Phlegyas's boat, onto which damned souls cling. The Barque of Dante was Delacroix's first publicly exhibited picture, and his first entry to the Paris Salon. Delacroix had long been interested in the works of Dante, and had previously created an illustration depicting the same scene that would be used in The Barque of Dante. After considering another subject, Delacroix settled on a passage from Inferno that was relatively unknown in France. Delacroix worked on the painting intensively for two and a half months, finishing it a just few days before the Salon. It received a mixed reception at the Salon: while many gave praise the painting, such as Antoine-Jean Gros...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Eugène Delacroix, Public domain