Canto XIX/4: Papal Arms

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

For Dante, misuse of Papal Authority for personal gain is a kind of piracy in high places and this is paralleled here by the degradation of the Papal Arms as they transform themselves stage by stage into the emblematic cliché of the pirate flag. They betray their station for gold and silver as the coins in the last section indicate, and as its text asserts by means of a pun on the shepherding function of the Pastoral Staff and the word ‘crook’.