Hans Frans works with found wood. The largest piece in the exhibition, for example, was once a tabletop. The unique personality and grain of the wood are not obstacles to overcome but are an integral part of the final work. Instead of painting, some of these pieces have been ebonised. The artist chips away at its ebonised surface to create a rich image full of depth and light. 

Maxime has created four pieces in fresco for the exhibition. The artist’s goal is not purely to successfully work in this ancient medium, but to create paintings that feel as though they have been cut out from the wall of a ruin. His paintings are archaic and beautiful.

Three paintings in watercolour on paper closely illustrate Dante’s poem. Written above and below the image is the poetry are lines from the poem which the artist responds to. His work continues a 700-year-old tradition of artists creating works on paper to accompany the Divine Comedy.

Alex Rooney is a leading British portrait painter. His 2015 portrait of Henry Marsh has recently been acquired by the National Portrait Gallery. For this show, he has created two delicately modelled portraits of Dante. In the larger work, the bold shadow is an unmistakable reference to Dante’s position in Purgatory as a man who is alive in a land of ghosts who do not cast shadows.

Emma Haworth’s painting appears, at first sight, to be a beautiful view of a seaside town. On closer inspection, Dante and Virgil’s journey in the land of Purgatory is richly illustrated, depicting all seven levels of the mountain. 

Alasdair Wallace is a leading Scottish artist with a poetic approach to painting. His fantastical world is full of surreal creatures and objects. The two small paintings on display in the show are ‘one-liners which’ which respond to the notion of a mountain between hell and heaven, and Dante being lost in the woods before discovering his celestial path.  

Hepzibah Swinford concludes this show with an uplifting portrayal of Dante’s ascent and
Beatrice’s arrival to meet him. Her vibrant world captures the sense of abundance and
optimism which is the reward at the top of the mountain as our protagonist arrives in
Paradise.