Pia in Purgatory
This is an original art print. It is 126 years old.
Artist: Gustave Dore
Type of Print: Original Antique Wood Engraving
Size of Paper: 9 3/4" x 12 1/2"
Size of Image: 7 3/4" x 9 3/4"
Printed in 1887 by Cassell Publishing
Printed on one side only; blank on the reverse. You will receive two sheets of paper; one is the art print and the other is the description.
Condition: Light signs of age. Yellowing around edges of paper. The image area is in excellent condition.
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More information about the print:
Dante, passing through Purgatory with his guide, the Mantuan. meets with several spirits who, though they had deferred their repentance till they were suddenly overtaken by a violent death, were yet allowed sufficient time to make a saving profession of faith. Amongst these are Giacopo del Cassero, Buonconte da Montefeltro, and Pia, a lady of Sienna. The last-named, addressing Dante, requests him to remember her when he returns to earth.
"Sienna gave me life;
Maremma took it from me. That he knows,
Who me with jewell'd ring had first espous'd"
The story of Pia is one of the tragedies of Italian mediaeval history. The lady is said to have been of the family of Tolommei, and was taken by her husband, Nella della Pietra, to perish in the marshes of the Maremma, from motives of jealousy. She was conveyed to a lonely house there in the sultry season of the year; the husband during the whole of the journey maintaining a sullen silence, and giving no heed to his wife's tears and remonstrances. Pietra was willing to take his own chance of death, for the sake of his revenge on the lady; and so, without a word, he watched over her until she died.
The misty light and flowering turf of the present illustration are very beautiful, and the figures are graceful and pathetic.
