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The Thieves and the Serpents   1824-27
pen, ink and watercolour over pencil and black chalk (NGV19)
Felton Bequest, 1920
1004-3
National Gallery of Victoria

Inferno XXIV, 82-96. The two poets have crossed over the cliff into the seventh chasm of the eighth circle, where the Thieves are punished by serpents. This part of Dante's narrative was the subject of no fewer than nine of Blake's watercolours and two of the related engravings.

(c)1999 National Gallery of Victoria