Zu Dante - Erster Gesang (On Dante - First Canto)

Lovis Corinth

Published posthumously, this work by Corinth was included a 1926 portfolio of prints attached to a special issue of the journal "Archive of Book Design and Applied Art." It contained twelve lithographs, etchings and woodcuts by twelve German artists of the period. All prints are signed by the artists and the edition was 250.

This illustrates a portion the First Canto, "Hell," from Dante's Divine Comedy, which reads: Behold, almost at the beginning of the steep path, a panther, nimble and very agile, its limbs covered with brightly spotted fur. It never left my sight again, and so hindered my onward course that I often turned down into the valley. It was in the morning, the sun was now rising, surrounded by those stars as before, when God's love called the beautiful world up from desolate nothingness to being and life. So I was given reason for good hope through the bright fur of that animal and through the early hour and the young year, but not so much that fear did not stir in me when a terrible lion appeared to me. It seemed that it was moving towards me, with its head held high and with the fury of hunger, so that it seemed to strike terror into the air. And a she-wolf, who seemed to show every fire of greed through her thinness, which had already brought many great misery. Before this my courage had to bow.

In this image are the animals described in the canto passage: a "she-wolf," a lion, and a "spotted panther," referring to a leopard, a lion, and a "she-wolf". There are many interpretations of this passage, and some indicate that these animals are meant to represent lust, pride, and avarice. In this image, Dante, in his middle age and facing the pitfalls of these sins in beast form, stands to the righ and looks out at the animals, deciding how to proceed.