Paolo and Francesca (Ingres)

Paolo and Francesca is a painting by the French artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, produced in seven known versions between 1814 and 1850. It derives from the story of Paolo and Francesca in Dante's Inferno. With Ingres' The Engagement of Raphael, these works represent early examples of the troubador style.

Of the seven known versions, that in the Musée des beaux-arts d'Angers is considered the most complete, notably in the exaggerated form of Paolo, whose neck recalls the same artist's Jupiter and Thetis. The frontality of the composition and the details of the room and clothes refer back to the Northern Renaissance.

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  Musée Condé, 1814

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  1816, Sotheby

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  Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Angers, 1819

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  Musee Bonnat, 1846

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  Museo Soumaya (Mexico), 1850-60s? (Same version at Sotheby's, 2007 was dated 1856-1860)

Links[]

• History of series

Bibliography[]

• Daniel Ternois, Ingres, Paris, Fernand Nathan, 1980 (ISBN 2-09-284-557-8)
• Robert Rosenblum, Ingres, Paris, Cercle d'Art, coll. « La Bibliothèque des Grands Peintres », 1986 (ISBN 2-7022-0192-X)