Michael Mazur (1935-2009)

Printmaker Michael Mazur's illustrations for The Inferno of Dante were a dream come true when he collaborated with poet Robert Pinsky on a translation of Dante's trilogy, The Divine Comedy. Mazur's interest in creating images for Dante's poem, which he describes as an "exploration of the nature of sinning, its source and its consequences" is predicated upon his respect for Dante, the visionary. According to Mazur, his illustrations were done in collaboration with Dante. (Mazur)

There I saw some sunken to the eyebrows,

and the great centaur said: They are tyrants

who took to blood and plunder.

'Here they lament their ruthless crimes.

Here is Alexander, here cruel Dionysius,

who gave to Sicily its years of woe.

And that brow with such jet-black hair

is Ezzelino, while the other blond one there

is Obizzo d' Este, who was indeed

'slain by his stepson in the world above.'

Canto XII 103-112, The Inferno

 

Monotype lends itself well to this depiction of tyrants boiling in a river of blood; its somber black and white effect symbolizing light and darkness, a central theme in Dante's Inferno. Mazur's decision to exclude Dante and Virgil's presences immediately pulls me into the scene; I am seeing what the two poets see instead of witnessing them see it. The fluidity of the ink intensifies as it moves from drops to streaks to dripping - all classifications reminiscent of blood. Bubbles on the surface of the lake indicate the extremely high temperature. The "brow with such jet-black hair" of the dominanting figure in the drawing most likely belongs to Ezzelino. Contrasting dark and light coloring parallels the disparity between the clarity of Ezzelino and the obscurity of the other figures. The figure behind Ezzelino appears to be submerged only up to his neck, which suggests that Dante didn't consider his infraction to be as egregious as the two in the foreground.




Undoubtedly, this miserable "blond" soul is Obizzo d' Este. The bubbling agitation of surface in the foreground shows us this part of the lake is boiling. Sadness fills the eyes of the tormented dominant figure, who holds out his right hand as if pleading for help. One can almost feel the figure behind him gasping for breath  through the rising vapors. In the previous picture, the tyrants are drowning in blood, where these oppressors are boiling, justifiable rewards for men who spent their blood-thirsty lives committing violence against others.



Mazur successfully captures the wretched, sweltering, unbearable murkiness of this liquid hellhole. His clever use of dual illustrations to portray this scene gives me the sense of moving through, since this was one of the few places where Dante didn't stop to talk.

Works Cited:

http://writing.upenn.edu/epc/meaning/02/mazur.html

Robert Hollander Dante Inferno. 2nd ed. New York: Randon, 2000. Print.