The Circle of Traitors: Dante's Foot Striking Bocca degli Abbate

Art Historical Context

William Blake's *The Circle of Traitors Dante's Foot Strikingca degli Abate*, created around 1825–27, captures a dramatic moment from Dante Alighieri's *Infer*, the first part of his epic *Divine Comedy* (1320). This engraving depicts Dante kicking the treacherous Bocca degli Abati a historical Florentine who betrayed his city during the 1260 Battle of Montaperti. Frozen up to his neck in the icy lake Cocytus in Hell's ninth circle, Bocca endures eternal punishment among traitors to country and party. Blake, nearing the end of his life, produced over 100 illustrations for the *Divine Comedy* in watercolor and engraving, blending his visionary Romanticism with Dante's medieval allegory. As an engraving on a modest plate (9 3/16 x 13 3/8 inches), the work showcases Blake's mastery of the medium. He hand-colored many of his Dante prints, using fine lines to evoke supernatural torment and moral drama. The focus on anguished heads—evident in the Met's tags—highlights raw emotion, with Bocca's gaping mouth (his namesake, "Bocca" meaning mouth) symbolizing betrayal's exposure. Acquired via the Rogers Fund in 1917, this print from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department exemplifies Blake's fusion of poetry, theology, and apocalyptic imagery, inviting visitors to ponder timeless themes of loyalty and divine justice.

About the Artist

William Blake|Dante Alighieri · 1757–1827

William Blake (1757–1827) stands as one of the most visionary and unconventional artists in British history, a poet-painter-printmaker whose mystical imagination and radical vision profoundly shaped the Romantic movement. Born in London's Soho district, Blake experienced visions from childhood—claiming to see angels in trees at age eight—and these spiritual encounters would guide his art throughou...