Antaeus setting down Dante and Virgil in the last circle of hell - William Blake
Archival giclée
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Description
A dramatic illustration by William Blake from his series depicting Dante's Divine Comedy, showing the giant Antaeus lowering the poets into the inferno.
This work is part of the extensive series of illustrations William Blake produced for Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. Commissioned by the painter John Linnell in 1824, the project occupied Blake until his death in 1827. The scene depicts the giant Antaeus, a figure from Greek mythology, lowering the poets Dante and Virgil into the ninth circle of hell, known as Cocytus.
Blake employs his characteristic style, combining precise ink outlines with fluid washes of watercolour. The composition is dominated by the colossal, muscular form of Antaeus, whose body arches across the upper portion of the frame. His skin is rendered in deep, bruised tones, contrasting with the stark, pale rock face he grips. Below, the figures of Dante and Virgil appear diminutive, emphasising the scale of the giant. The background features a dark, atmospheric void, suggesting the depths of the inferno.
Blake's approach to the subject matter is highly personal. He does not merely document the text but interprets the psychological weight of the narrative. The anatomical exaggeration of Antaeus reflects Blake's interest in the expressive potential of the human form, a recurring theme in his work. The colour palette is restricted, relying on deep blues, greys, and earthy browns to convey the bleakness of the setting. This print captures the tension between the physical power of the giant and the vulnerability of the travellers. It is a representative example of Blake's late period, where his visionary style reached a high degree of clarity and emotional force.
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Each print is produced to order using 12-colour giclée printing on FSC-certified archival paper. Designed in Britain and printed at your nearest production hub to reduce waste and speed up delivery.
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Materials & Sizing
Museum-grade giclée on FSC-certified archival matte paper, with framed and canvas options.
- Paper sizes: A4, A3, A2, A1, A0 and B2 (50×70 cm)
- Canvas: XS (20×30 cm) to Large (60×90 cm)
- Frames: black, natural wood, dark wood or white
Antaeus setting down Dante and Virgil in the last circle of hell - William Blake
Artist Biography
William Blake
He married Catherine Boucher in 1782. She was illiterate at the time and signed the marriage register with an X. He taught her to read, write, and engrave, and she became his collaborator for the next forty-five years: mixing paint, operating the printing press, hand-colouring plates, and binding the finished pages into covers.
Their working method was Blake's own invention, revealed to him (he said) in a dream by the spirit of his dead brother Robert. Relief etching reversed the standard printmaking process: instead of cutting lines into copper, Blake wrote and drew on the plate in acid-resistant varnish, then dissolved the surrounding metal with acid, leaving text and image raised. This allowed him to compose poetry and illustration simultaneously on a single plate, print them together, then hand-colour each sheet in watercolour. Every copy was therefore unique. Songs of Innocence and of Experience was produced this way. He sold fewer than thirty copies during his lifetime.
In 1803, he physically threw a soldier named John Schofield out of his garden in Felpham. He was charged with assault and with uttering treasonable expressions against the King. He was acquitted at the Chichester assizes in January 1804.
Newton, painted in 1795, shows the scientist as a young man with the body of a Greek god, bent forward at the bottom of a dark ocean, fixing his gaze on a pair of compasses, measuring and drawing on a scroll that appears to project from his own head. It is a painting about the limits of reason: beautiful, precise, and missing everything beyond the edge of the paper. The Ancient of Days, from the same period, depicts his mythological figure Urizen crouching at the edge of a void, reaching down with a compass to measure the darkness below.
He died on 12 August 1827, working on illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy. He was buried at Bunhill Fields. The wider recognition came decades later.
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