Up until this point I had avoided drawing Dante and Virgil because they simply didn’t interest me. But my illustrations had progressed to the point where this was an unsupportable luxury. To move forward I would have to design my two main protagonists, “The Poetic Duo”.
Dante and Virgil are now in the 6th Circle of Hell, the round of the Heretics. They pass a graveyard and and open tomb. Farinata, a partisan on the opposing side of the Florentine civil war, stands into view and starts trading insults with Dante. Then another shade pops up. He is Cavalcante, father of Guido, a poet ex-friend of Dante’s whom Dante caused to be exiled from Florence, leading to Guido’s death. The sight of his betrayed friend’s Dad causes Dante to feel guilty. I’m not sure what this has to do with heresy.
Virgil and Dante are saved by an Angel, who contemptuously taps the barred gates of Dis with a wand. The gates fly open. The Hellish Host has vanished. Dante and Virgil enter, unmolested, free to explore ever more nether regions of the Netherworld.
