DANTE’S INFERNO. DORÉ AND RAUSCHENBERG

Few places in literature have held such a powerful position in our imagination as Dante’s  Inferno.  The nine circles, teeming with sin and the condemned, and eerie landscapes, have been inspiring artists of every age for centuries. 

Written in the early 14th century by Dante Alighieri, this is the first of the three parts of the Divine Comedy, one of the great universal works of literature. More than seven hundred years later, its timeless ability to depict fears, conflicts, and contradictions remains intact. Every generation has found new ways to interpret their own world through its pages. 

In Dante’s Inferno. Doré and Rauschenberg, for the first time, Fundación Canal is bringing together two complete series that Gustave Doré and Robert Rauschenberg dedicated to Inferno. A total of 111 works that bring into dialogue two interpretations executed almost a century apart and with radically different artistic languages. 

Doré’s 76 woodcuts, made in the 19th century, cohabit in this exhibition with 35 offset lithographs by Rauschenberg, published in the 1960s. As opposed to Doré’s dramatic, monumental, and medievalist aesthetic, Rauschenberg provides a fragmentary and contemporary view, making Inferno a reflection on the society of his time. 

An opportunity to travel through the nine circles and discover how a work written more than seven centuries ago still questions us and takes on new meanings today. 

Curated by Lola Durán Úcar, the exhibition is complemented by a catalogue published by the Fundación, which goes further in depth in this unique encounter between literature and artistic creation.