Dante and Virgil visit Hell. Dante and Virgil, Rafael Flores, 1855

{| class="cquote" style="margin:auto; border-collapse: collapse; border: none; background-color: transparent; width: auto; " | width="20" valign="top" style="border:none; color:#b2b7f2;font-size:35px;font-family: 'times new roman', serif; font-weight: bold; text-align: left; padding: 10px 10px;" | “ | valign="top" style="border: none; padding: 4px 10px;" | in a description of rafael flores' painting, dante and virgil visiting hell, critic roa bárcena explains to his readers: since we have just talked about dante, we will begin our review of the third room with a notable original painting by don rafael flores, which represents dante and virgil visiting hell. The artist must have understood the sublimity of that passage from the divine comedy, in which the first of these poets is led by the second, across rocks and precipices, to the cavern where the bad counselors are tormented by the flames. Virgil, placed at the top of the painting, asks ulysses to tell the story of his shipwreck, and dante, leaning on the edge of the abyss, and with his face contorted by terror, listens to ulysses' words. It is necessary to notice in the attitude and face of virgil the serenity caused by the ancientness of his acquaintance with the souls given over to eternal punishments, and in the attitude and face of dante alighieri the horror caused by the novelty of such a horrible scene. Both characters are laureates and dante's physiognomy is perfectly preserved, and it is to be felt that virgil's is not more aquiline, as represented by the oldest medals. The light of the fire in which the precious stones burn dominates the entire painting, being so perfectly characterized that, due to a very common deception of our senses, we experience heat when we approach the canvas, and our eyes cannot linger on it for long without being hurt. The attitudes, the faces, the clothing and even the complicated plays of light that are noticeable, especially in the figure of the author of the aeneid, reveal great taste and an extraordinary study on the part of the artist, who won second prize in the class of composition of few figures. | width="20" valign="bottom" style="border: none; color: #b2b7f2; font-size: 35px; font-family: 'times new roman', serif; font-weight: bold; text-align: right; padding: 10px 10px;" | ” |- | colspan="3" class="cquotecite" style="border: none; padding-right: 4%" | —ida rodríguez prampolini, "art criticism in mexico in the 19th century", unam, [1964¹] 1997², google books, p. 56 and p. 424 |}. Object Type: painting. Date: 1855. Medium: oil on canvas. Depicted People: Dante, Virgil. Collection: Museo Nacional de Arte. Rafael Flores - Dante y Virgilio visitando el Infierno