Wednesday, February 24

Hell is other people

    The Divine Comedy - is a firey road trip where Dante and his friend Virgil  go to various places and look at bad naked people on fire. The Botticelli drawings depicting the story are currently on in the Courtauld Gallery and it's brilliant, the link doesn't show the best pictures which is why I've had to make my own version - I particularly like the one where bad priests have been plunged head down into boiling pits of pitch with their feet on fire - Dante has spotted one that he recognises and is trying to say hello.

I also enjoyed the image of soothsayers being punished for trying to look into the future - they've had their heads pulled off and put back on - backwards.

Mainly I've enjoyed how Dante deals with all the horror: at the beginning when it's really monstery and flaming he's clearly screaming like a girl but he soon gets used to it all - here he is in purgatory which is not as bad as hell, this is where people can atone for their sins, like this proud person who can't stand up properly because he's bent under the weight of lots of rocks - also the man is naked, there's nothing to help the chaffing so he's probably really uncomfortable, but there's Dante again trying to make chit chat.

[this blog looks better if you view the web version]





8 comments:

  1. I hope there are special treatments in store for politicians as well!

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  2. at the beginning when it's really monstery and flaming he's clearly screaming like a girl that made me laugh so hard my boobs ached. also a bit wheezy that might be part of it. bwahahahahahaha! I adore you.

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  3. I do like the drawing of the bad priests.It pairs very nicely with Tim Minchin's song for Cardinal Pell.
    (I'm sure if you google it will be there)

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  4. Thank you for saying about the things you do and describing - and sometimes drawing - the things you see. This one made my day.

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