The Circle of Traitors: Dante's Foot Striking Bocca degli Abbate
ca. 1825–27
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
plate: 9 3/16 x 13 3/8 in. (23.3 x 34 cm) sheet: 10 3/4 x 13 3/4 in. (27.3 x 34.9 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1917
Accession Number
17.65.6
Tags
Art Historical Context
William Blake's *The Circle of Traitors Dante's Foot Strikingca degli Abate*, created around 1825–27, captures a dramatic moment from Dante Alighieri's *Infer*, the first part of his epic *Divine Comedy* (1320). This engraving depicts Dante kicking the treacherous Bocca degli Abati a historical Florentine who betrayed his city during the 1260 Battle of Montaperti. Frozen up to his neck in the icy lake Cocytus in Hell's ninth circle, Bocca endures eternal punishment among traitors to country and party. Blake, nearing the end of his life, produced over 100 illustrations for the *Divine Comedy* i...
About the Artist
William Blake|Dante Alighieri · 1757–1827
William Blake (1757–1827) stands as one of the most visionary and unconventional artists in British history, a poet-painter-printmaker whose mystical imagination and radical vision profoundly shaped the Romantic movement. Born in London's Soho district, Blake experienced visions from childhood—claiming to see angels in trees at age eight—and these spiritual encounters would guide his art throughou...