Tom Phillips[colophon] 1979-83

P07989 Colophon

Etching 11 1/8 × 8 (292 × 204)

Inscribed ‘Tom Phillips’ centre and ‘lxxxiii’ and ‘of the edition proper consisting of one hundred copies this is no.77’
Lit: Tom Phillips, Dante's Inferno, 1985 (bound edition of the complete work)

This work consists of Phillips's own translation of the Inferno, the first part of the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. Each of the 34 Cantos is accompanied by an introductory image and then three illustrations opposite the text of the poem. In an introduction in a booklet published by Waddington Graphics in 1983, the artist writes:

The Inferno is Europe's harsh masterpiece of eschatology: magnificent descriptions alternate with bleak but moving confrontations with the range of Man's baser potentialities; through these we come to know Dante's own beliefs, trials and visionary hopes. We also acquaint ourselves through his narrative with the complete scope of mediaeval learning: we see the Renaissance, so to speak, at first light. However remote in epoch and name are the characters, time drops away and reveals to us real people: we recognise them and know their modern counterparts… (read more)