Provenance
- 1874, Paris, upon the death of the artist, to his daughter, Mrs. Edward Lee Childe (Blanche de Triqueti, 1837-1886)
- 1876, January 7, gift of Mrs. Edward Lee Childe to the MFA
Bibliography
- Museum's website, 6 March 2012 and 21 March 2012
Exhibition
- 1971 Louisville
Nineteenth Century French Sculpture: Monuments for the Middle Class, Louisville, J.B. Speed Art Museum, November 2-December 5, 1971, no. 90 - 1980-1981 Los Angeles/Minneapolis/Detroit/Indianapolis
The Romantics to Rodin. French Nineteenth-Century Sculpture from North American Collections, Organized and edited by Peter Fusco & Horst W. Janson, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, March 4-May 25, 1980; The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, June 25-September 21, 1980; The Detroit Institute of Arts, October 27, 1980-January 4, 1981; Indianapolis Museum of Art, February 22-April 29, 1981, no. 216, p. 359-360, repr.
Comment
Museum's label text, 2008:
Triqueti, like many artists of his time, was inspired by medieval and Renaissance art and literature. He often represented the Italian poet Dante (1265-1321) or illustrated episodes from Dante's Divine Comedy. Here, using a half-length format that recalls antique funerary statuary, he portrayed Dante with Roman poet Virgil, who guided him through Hell and Purgatory in the Divine Comedy. Dante holds a scroll inscribed with a line from Canto One of Purgatory: "Liberta va cercando ch'e si cara" (He goes seeking freedom which is so dear).