Franz von Bayros (Agram/Zagreb 1866-1924 Vienna)
The Simoniacs
an illustration for Dante's Inferno, Canto XIX
1920
mixed media (pencil, watercolour and black ink heightened with gold) on card
15 x 12½ in. (38.1 x 31.7 cm)
lower right recto signed "Bayros"
The Daulton Collection
Provenance:
Anonymous sale, Christie's, London, 17 November 2005, Lot 61 (with the title "Ode to Dante")
Isabel Goldsmith Collection (acquired at the 2005 Christie's sale)
Discussion:
This drawing was reproduced as one of sixty mounted, color plates by Franz von Bayros in the sumptuous three-volume edition (Inferno -Purgatorio - Paradiso) of Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy [Die göttliche Komödie / La Divina Commedia] published in 1921 by Amalthea Verlag (ed. Karl Toth, German trans. Otto Gildemeister).
"Franz von Bayros was an illustrator noted for his delicate graphic style. He became infamous as the result of a court case over one of his erotic portfolios and, in 1911, was forced into exile because of his work. He was regarded as a superb draughtsman, in the style of Aubrey Beardsley, with his fine technique and witty, but frequently decadent subject matter. Dante's Divine Comedy is the tale of Dante's journey, guided by Virgil and Beatrice, through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven. The scene here depicted is likely to be Minos judging the souls of condemned sinners [here, the Simoniacs] to one of the lower eight circles of Hell. We see the great monster unmercifully casting those he judges down, while the condemned plead with him to no avail." Christie's
