Showing posts with label Dante. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dante. Show all posts

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Blake at Tate

Blake at Tate


It is necessary for most people to be a bit picky when it comes to appreciating William Blake, who is the deserved subject of a large exhibition at Tate Britain (a "Blakebuster"?). Very few are those who have the patient scholarship to follow his art and writing through all their intricate visionary philosophies. Not many more, I should guess, fall into the category of general readers that, with the help of those scholars, have a good understanding of the preoccupations of his esoteric works.

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Dante's Purgatory at Stansted Airport

Dante’s Purgatory at Stansted Airport

One of the illustrations that Botticelli made for Dante’s Divine Comedy (recently on show at the Courtauld Gallery) is of a cowed gaggle of naked souls arriving on the shores Purgatory. Why do I recall this drawing fresh (or rather stale) from a journey through Stansted Airport?


The image is apt for the scene in the airport’s vast new security shed.