One of the most popular paintings among visitors to the Scottish National Gallery is William Dyce’s Francesca da Rimini. It portrays a moment in the doomed affair between Francesca and her brother-in-law Paolo, as narrated in ‘Canto 5’ of Dante’s Inferno, and reflects nineteenth-century fascination with the adulterous lovers and their ‘fall’. The painting’s own history is a strange one. When first exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy show in 1837, it included more of the story than we now see, but until recently there seemed to be no visual evidence of the section that was later removed. Professor Nick Havely, University of York, traces the traditions within which Dyce was working, documents the misfortunes of his ‘Francesca’ and presents new evidence from an Italian collection to show how the painting might have appeared to its original Victorian viewers.
For further information, please visit http://tinyurl.com/ked5sxa
Image: Francesca da Rimini, William Dyce, 1837
No booking required: free, unticketed