Art, Symbol & Imagination
Dante Falls after Francesca’s Account
Dante lies across the rough ground at Virgil's feet while pale figures continue moving through the air above them. The fifth canto ends with the traveller overcome by compassion. Doré places Dante's body horizontally at the bottom of the picture, contrasting it with Virgil's standing form and the continuing motion overhead. The guide looks toward the fallen man, while the surrounding rocky setting remains unsoftened by his reaction. The caption describes a collapse like that of a lifeless body. The image marks a break in the narrator's awareness, not the death of Dante within the story, which resumes in the next canto.
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Citation
Gustave Doré (design). "Dante Falls after Francesca’s Account" [editorial title]. In Dante's Inferno, Dante Alighieri. New Edition, undated supplied scan, undated edition, Thompson & Thomas. Source scan leaf 56. Lumitheca. /gallery/image/inferno-dore-49
Source details
Editorial title and description. Source details from the Library catalogue.
Full source plate visually inspected; original scan tone retained. Editorial title. Sideways bound plates turned upright in the derivative only; source and reader unchanged.
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Dante's InfernoDante AlighieriUndated editionMore from this book
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Gustave Doré (design). Dante Falls after Francesca’s Account. Dante's Inferno. Scan leaf 56. Lumitheca. https://lumitheca.com/gallery/image/inferno-dore-49