HYPOCRITES

Original 7 3/4 inch x 9 5/8 inch Engraving HYPOCRITES.

Dante and Virgil arrive at a chasm which is filled with spirits walking very slowly, as with a heavy burden. These shades are the Hypocrites. They wear cloaks and hoods that are dazzling with their glitter but lined with lead. Dante and Virgil turn to the left, but they are walking faster than the weighted-down Hypocrites, so Dante asks Virgil to slow down and find a spirit that he might know.

Text below the image: ”Tuscan, who visitest the college of the mourning hypocrites, disdain not to instruct us who thou art.” Canto XXIII., lines 92-94.

Engraved by Heliodore Joseph Pisan (1822 – 1890). Pisan, born in Marseilles, was a painter, watercolourist, engraver, illustrator, lithographer of genre scenes, landscapes and still-lifes. He exhibited at the Paris Salon from 1849 and was made a Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur. He produced mainly book illustrations, notably Don Quixote in 1861, The Bible after the work of Gustave Doré.

Illustration by Gustave Doré (1832 – 1883). The most popular and successful French book illustrator of the middle of the 19th century. Doré became widely known for his illustrations to such books as Danté’s Inferno (1861), Don Quixote (1862), and the Bible (1866), and he helped to give European currency to the illustrated book of large format. He was so prolific that at one time he employed more than forty wood engravers. His work is characterized by an eclectic mix of Michelangelesque nudes, northern traditions of sublime landscape, and a highly spirited love of the grotesque and bizarre.

Doré began work on his illustrations for the Divine Comedy in 1855 at a time when there was a renewed interest in Dante in France. Doré himself financed the publication of the Inferno in 1861 and this was so successful that the Purgatory and Paradise were published by Hachette in 1868 as a single volume. Subsequently, Doré’s Dante illustrations appeared in roughly 200 editions in many languages.

Illustration for Dante Alighieri’s “The Divine Comedy” widely considered to be the preeminent work in Italian literature and one of the greatest works of world literature. It is divided into three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. This illustration is from the Inferno.

Published as a part work by Cassell and Company, Limited, London. May 1903 – September 1904.

Page size 13 1/4 inch x 10 inch

The engraving, on fairly thick paper, is in very good condition. Reverse side blank.