Dante and Virgil at the Entrance to Hell 1858

Edgar Degas painted "Dante and Virgil at the Entrance to Hell" in the late 1850s. At the time, he was a young artist who, like many others, journeyed to Italy to study the Old Masters and classical literature. Degas’s painting portrays a scene from Dante Alighieri’s "Inferno" in which the poet Dante is led by the ancient Roman poet Virgil through the underworld. The figures are enshrouded in shadow. Dante, in red, looks at Virgil as if seeking guidance or reassurance before they descend into hell. There is an emotional vulnerability in his face, as if his very soul is exposed. Virgil, draped in ghostly blue, points the way forward. Degas situates these literary figures in a dark, unknowable space which, in doing so, explores the human confrontation with mortality. By depicting a journey into the unknown, Degas captures the emotional intensity that comes with facing our deepest fears, while using the setting of hell as a metaphor for the dark, unknown corners of the human psyche.