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Canto III: The Gate of Hell from L’Inferno di Dante, 1996–2000

Michael Mazur
American, 1935–2009
Canto III: The Gate of Hell from L’Inferno di Dante, 1996–2000
Etching on Arches cover white paper
Purchase, Philip and Lynn Straus, class of 1946, 2002.42.8

In the late 1990s, printmaker Michael Mazur created the portfolio L’Inferno di Dante. Mazur based his haunting series of forty-two etchings on a group of monotypes that he made several years earlier for an English translation of Inferno by Robert Pinsky. Mazur’s images resulted from his sustained, personal study of Dante’s text and close collaboration with Pinsky. According to Pinsky, “[T]hat process of collaborating I think in some spiritual way helped me in my effort, and . . . helped me understand the work . . .” Mazur, rather than illustrating Dante on his journey through Hell as is common in the history of art, chose instead that we the viewers encounter the scenes ourselves, without an intermediary, a choice that adds powerful immediacy to his compositions.

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Canto III: The Gate of Hell from L’Inferno di Dante, 1996–2000 In the late 1990s, printmaker Michael Mazur created the portfolio L’Inferno di Dante. Mazur based his haunting series of forty-two etchings on a group of monotypes that he made several years earlier for an English translation of Inferno by Robert Pinsky. Mazur’s images resulted from his sustained, personal study of Dante’s text and close collaboration with Pinsky. According to Pinsky, “[T]hat process of collaborating I think in some spiritual way helped me in my effort, and . . . helped me understand the work . . .” Mazur, rather than illustrating Dante on his journey through Hell as is common in the history of art, chose instead that we the viewers encounter the scenes ourselves, without an intermediary, a choice that adds powerful immediacy to his compositions.