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SAVOYV4_icon6_blake_thieves

This halftone reproduction of Blake’s engraving for Dante’s Inferno is in landscape orientation. The image shows four figures in hell; three on the left watch a fourth on the right being attacked by a serpent. On the far left are two robed figures, likely Dante and Virgil. The first figure on the left is standing in the foreground and rises to three-quarters up the page in height. The figure, likely Dante, is wearing a long and dark robe. His body is facing the viewer with his head turned towards the right, giving a three-quarters profile. His hands are raised up at a ninety degree angle with his palms facing the viewer. His eyes look towards the snake attacking the naked figure to his right. There is a second robed man standing behind and to the right of the first. He is visible in profile, with his face looking to the right toward the serpent attacking the naked man (Buoso Donati). To the right of the two robed figures are two naked men. The first stands close to the robed pair, with his body facing the viewer, but his head is turned to look down at the snake on the ground. His right leg is crossed in front of his left leg and his toes are pointed in to face each other. He has short curly hair. His left arm is pulled across his body, with his left hand resting on his right shoulder. His right arm is pulled behind his back. To the right of him on the ground is the serpent. It is scaled and its body is twisted in a loop, with the head and tail on the right. The serpent has its head lifted to look up at a naked figure standing to its right. The snake’s head is long and the mouth is open with smoke rising out of it in puffs up and to the right. The naked figure to the right of the snake is standing with the body facing the viewer. The male figure is in a defensive posture, with the right leg lifted slightly, pulled away from the serpent. The figure’s arms are lifted in front in a ninety degree angle. The figure’s upper body is leaned down towards the serpent, with the face turned to look down at it, his mouth is opened in an “o” shape. The figure has spiked hair on the top of the head with longer pieces falling down the back. The ground on which all of the figures and snake rest is flat and plain, with a small design of rocky ground under the feet of the robed men. In the mid-ground is more flat land with intermittent pieces of jagged rock. There is also another snake or serpent in the mid-ground to the left of the one in the foreground. This snake is facing to the left and stretched out in a long horizontal line. At the halfway point up the height of the page is the start of the skyline. The background is made of clouds along the top edge of the page, with jagged lines rising up in the left background. Waved vertical lines are appear intermittently in the distant background.