Le Dante et Virgile se prosternent devant l’Ange chargé de conduire les âimes dans le purgatoire

Flaxman’s The Bark of Purgatory is the first of three drawings for canto 2. The sky is suffused with the rays of the early morning sun in whose light the “bird of God” has arrived with its soon-to-be disembarked cargo. Dante and Virgil prostrate themselves to “the heavenly steersman at the prow,” embodying in Flaxman’s graphic action those poetic lines spoken by Virgil immediately upon seeing this “pilot” open its “wings”: “Down, down; bend low / Thy knees; behold God’s angel: fold thy hands: / Now shalt thou see true ministers indeed” (2.28-36). The bold lines and dark shadows that Flaxman has given Vigil and Dante (somewhat darker and deeper in this Réveil engraving than in its Piroli counterpart) add to the lightness with which he depicts that “small bark so swift / And light, that in its course no wave it drank” (2.40-41). The “herbe magique” that Virgil had placed upon Dante’s head in the previous plate has now transformed itself into a shapely cincture similar to Virgil’s own.  Piroli had identified Virgil and Dante with names beneath their kneeling figures; Réveil trusts we will recognize Dante as the central figure in the foreground, his pagan guide slightly more distant on the left.  Note the elegance with which Flaxman has indicated the place of Dante’s foot beneath the covering robe.