Art, Symbol & Imagination
The Hoarders and Spendthrifts Roll Their Burdens
Bare figures bend their shoulders and arms against enormous rounded weights as two groups converge across the rough ground. The fourth circle places those who hoarded wealth and those who squandered it in a repeating collision. Doré turns that opposition into bodily labour, filling the plate with pushing backs, braced legs and immense burdens. The caption says that all the gold beneath the moon cannot buy relief for these exhausted souls. The stone masses therefore carry more than a simple image of heaviness: they make the poem’s account of a repeated, unproductive exchange visible.
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Citation
Gustave Doré (design). "The Hoarders and Spendthrifts Roll Their Burdens" [editorial title]. In Dante's Inferno, Dante Alighieri. New Edition, undated supplied scan, undated edition, Thompson & Thomas. Source scan leaf 64. Lumitheca. /gallery/image/inferno-dore-57
Source details
Editorial title and description. Source details from the Library catalogue.
Full original plate and caption visually inspected. Editorial title; original scan tone and intrinsic damage retained. Sideways plates rotated in the Gallery derivative only.
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Gustave Doré (design). The Hoarders and Spendthrifts Roll Their Burdens. Dante's Inferno. Scan leaf 64. Lumitheca. https://lumitheca.com/gallery/image/inferno-dore-57