image index
previous image next image

The Stygian Lake, with the Ireful Sinners Fighting   1824-27
pen, ink and watercolour over pencil (NGV 8)
Felton Bequest, 1920
992-3
National Gallery of Victoria

Inferno VII, 106-26. Dante and Virgil enter the fifth circle of Hell and come to the Stygian marsh or Styx, in which they see the Wrathful and the Sullen smiting each other not just with their hands but also with their heads, bodies and feet; the sobs of those below the water make its surface bubble.

(c)1999 National Gallery of Victoria