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The A-Z of William Blake: D is for Dante

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From: The Independent - London
Date: 20001109
Author:Kevin Jackson

IN HIS old age, commissioned by his friend John Linnell, Blake set about the huge task of illustrating the whole of Dante's Divina commedia; a project left unfinished at his death in 1827, though he did leave more than 100 watercolours in various stages of completion, as well as seven engravings.

Always a quick student in foreign languages, Blake taught himself enough Italian in a few weeks to be able to appreciate Dante's poetry in the original, though he must already have known it in translation for many years, to judge by a passage in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell in which he makes ...

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