Detail of Dante and Virgil in the underworld speak to the souls of Paolo and Francesca by Gordon Napier. Click for full image.

British artist Gordon Napier is fascinated with medieval art, history and writing. He publishes his work on DeviantArt under the dashinvaine monniker. Shown above is a scene he drew from Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri in which Dante and Virgil in the underworld speak to the souls of Paolo and Francesca. In Gordon’s own words:

“Paolo and Francesca were a real life pair in medieval italy. Francesca was tricked into marrying Paolo’s brother Giovanni, thinking it was Paolo she was to wed. Her father Guido da Polenta wanted to clinch a peace treaty with their clan, the Malatesta, the only trouble was that the eldest brother, who stood to inherit the lordship of Rimini, was malformed and a bit of a villain to boot.

Paolo continued to visit Francesca, and one day when reading a book about Lancelot and Guinevere they were inspired to kiss for the first time. Her husband Giovanni, at that, jumped out from behind a curtain and stabbed the couple to death. The lovers were immortalized by Dante in his poem.

Dante imagines a rather ruthless God who has dreamt up terrible tortures for the souls of sinners. The souls of ‘carnal malefactors’ are caught up in an endless torrent of souls winding through the cavernous second circle of Hell, buffeted and assailed. Yet whatever the Almighty can throw at them, the one thing he seems unable to do to Paolo and Francesca is part them.”

Gordon’s illustration is very much inspired by the work of Gustav Doré, but he used Bouguereau’s 1895 work Le Ravissement de Psyche (The Rapture of Psyche) to draw the fated couple. Below you can compare Bouguereau’s work with the remastered version. The third image is the scene depicted by Gustave Doré in 1857.

Click the first image to visit the gallery where you can find many more remastered versions of the original Bouguereau painting. Click the others to view their sources.