Dante and Virgil in Union Square

© Estate of Isabel Bishop. Photograph and digital image © Delaware Art Museum. Not for reproduc…
© The Estate of Isabel Bishop. Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York
Dante and Virgil in Union Square
© Estate of Isabel Bishop. Photograph and digital image © Delaware Art Museum. Not for reproduction or publication.

Dante and Virgil in Union Square

Date1932
Artist (American painter and etcher, 1902–1988)
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions27 × 51 3/4 in. (68.6 × 131.4 cm)
frame: 30 1/2 x 55 1/2 x 1 3/4 in. (77.5 x 141 x 4.4 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Friends of Art, 1971
Object number1971-176
On View
On view
ClassificationsPAINTING
Label TextIsabel Bishop devoted her career to depicting the ordinary people of New York City, especially those in her neighborhood around Union Square and 14th Street. However, her inclusion of Dante, in the red cloak, and Virgil, with a laurel wreath on his head, makes this work exceptional.

According to the artist, she was inspired by her reading of a “down-to-earth” and “unpoetical” translation of Dante’s Inferno, a version that dwelled on the mundane details of the underworld. The artist connected the hordes of ordinary souls that confront Dante and Virgil in hell with the hordes of human beings that daily passed through Union Square at rush hour.
© Estate of Isabel Bishop. Photograph and digital image © Delaware Art Museum. Not for reproduc…
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