Dante and Virgil Meeting the Shades of Francesca da Rimini and Paolo (1851): Art, History and Details

Dante and Virgil Meeting the Shades of Francesca da Rimini and Paolo (1851) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Ary Scheffer (Dutch, 1795–1858).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Based on The Divine Comedy, Dante's epic poem of the 1300s, this painting depicts Dante and the ancient Roman poet Virgil encountering the souls of Paolo and Francesca on a visit to Hell. Although in love with Paolo, Francesca was forced to marry his deformed brother for political reasons. When the jilted husband discovered the lovers embracing, he murdered them, apparently consigning them to Hell due to their adulterous affair.

Object facts

• Title: Dante and Virgil Meeting the Shades of Francesca da Rimini and Paolo
• Date: 1851
• Creator attribution: Ary Scheffer (Dutch, 1795–1858)
• Culture: Netherlands
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on fabric
• Dimensions: Framed: 45.5 x 53 x 7.5 cm (17 15/16 x 20 7/8 x 2 15/16 in.); Unframed: 24.7 x 33.2 cm (9 3/4 x 13 1/16 in.)
• Collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960
• Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1980.40

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1980.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 68, no. 6 (June 1981): 163–219.
• “Annual Report for 1980.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 68, no. 7 (July 1981): 223–266.
• Argencourt, Louise d', and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.