Bidspirit auction | The Turning Point (Dante: Purgatorio

The Turning Point (Dante: Purgatorio 32: 37-60) By Louise Marchal Oil on wood panel 2021 - SHIPS FROM United Kingdom- DescriptionThis piece was painted for the Dante 700 celebrations in 2021 and was exhibited at The Dante Society exhibition in London in September of that year alongside a series of online, international events discussing the works of Dante. The painting is on a wooden box panel which has a depth of 3.5cm.I've written a detailed blog account (see https://louisiem.wordpress.com/2021/09/14/for-dante/ ) on the roots of the complex imagery in this painting but the passage in 'The Divine Comedy' that primarily inspired it is from Purgatorio 32 – a scene famously illustrated by William Blake. I omitted the chariot for poetic reasons, to simplify the image to the cruciform arm of the chariot mentioned in the text and concentrate on the crucial aspect of redemption that this scene signifies.And then they circled round a leafless tree.Its every branch was stripped of greenery.The crested peak which broadens out the moreThe more it rises, would, for height, inspireWonder in the Hindus in their own great woods.‘Blessed are you Gryphon. With your beakYou did not spoil this wood, so sweet to taste.For after tasting, bellies writhe, all sick.’Around this might tree they made this cry.And then the creature, two formed in its birth:‘In this way, all that’s true and just is saved.’Then, turned towards the pole he’d drawn. Before, Towards the foot of that long-widowed sprig, he tugged it and then left it bound to that.Compare: in spring the great light of the sunCascades on earthly trees conjoined with thatwhich shines out following the astral Carp.These trees then swell. The colour is renewed, In each and all, before the sun moves onTo yoke its horse to some other star.So did this tree, whose boughs had hung bereft, Take on new strength, in colour openingTo more than violet and to less than rose. Condition: Good Condition, as in images Dimensions: 60 x 80 cm