Canto XVI/3: Fabrics of Hell

Silkscreen page proof approved by the artist and signed / initialled by him, taken from the original Talford Press edition of 185, printed on 100% rag, acid-free Inveresk (Somerset) paper

page size 39.5 x 31 cm

1979 – 1983

As Dante moves downwards through Hell, images tend more and more to quote each other. This particular illustration re-uses the skin of the leopard, symbol of lustfulness and the cord surrounding the picture is that which Dante hoped to use to ensnare the beast. The woven hessian (taken in fact from an African sack) indicates his almost certain attachment to the Franciscan order whose cord lures Fraud into the open.