Dante and Virgil Meeting the Shades of Francesca da Rimini and Paolo

Ary Scheffer’s 1851 painting shows Dante and Virgil encountering Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta in Hell. Part of a series inspired by Dante’s Inferno. Cleveland Museum of Art.

The figures of Dante and Virgil are partially obscured in shadow on the right side. Francesca and Paolo appear prominently, their pale forms contrasting with the dark background.

Scheffer painted at least six versions of this scene between 1822 and 1855. The Cleveland version is oil on fabric, painted in 1851.

Scheffer had strong connections to French royalty. He taught the children of King Louis Philippe I and enjoyed royal patronage before the 1848 revolution.

Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, https://clevelandart.org/art/1980.40

https://oolf.net/open-art/scheffer-dante-and-virgil-meeting-the-shades-of-francesca-da-rimini-a-1851/