Miniature decorative motif (illustration for Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri/Purgatory, Canto
Miniature decorative motif (illustration for Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri/Purgatory, Canto 32), 2017Acrylics on card, 11.4 x 11.4 cm***130 Then the ground, it seemed to me, opened up Between the two wheels, and I saw a dragon Come out and dash its tail up through the carriage; And, as a wasp retracts its sting, it drew Its poisoned tail back to itself, tore out135 Part of the floor, and gloating wandered off. What was left was covered once again — As fertile land with grasses — with the feathers, Offered perhaps with true and kind intention. Both one wheel and the other and the pole-shaft140 Were once more covered with them in less time Than it would take the mouth to heave a sigh. Transformed in this way, the sacred structure Sprouted heads upon its different parts, Three on the pole and one each at the corners.145 The three were horned like oxen, but the four Had just a single horn upon their foreheads: Never was seen a monster like that rig! Seated there securely, like a fortress On a steep hill, a whore appeared to me,150 Ungirt, with eyes agog to rove about. And I saw standing by her side a giant, As if he watched that no one take her from him, And they, time after time, kissed one another. But when she turned her lustful, roving eyes155 On me, then that ferocious paramour Beat her unmercifully from head to foot. Then filled with jealousy and fierce with rage, He tore the monster loose, and dragged it off So far through the woods that just the trees160 Screened me from the whore and that strange beast.(trans. James Finn Cotter) -- source link
#forkas#denis forkas#dante alighieri#divine comedy#purgatorio#illustration#chariot#apocalypse#transformation#sketch#grotesque#miniature