Richard Westmacott III, RA, A plaster relief of Paolo and Francesca Plaster, 54.2 x 36.2 in. (138 x 93 cm.) New York Private Collection

A painted plaster relief of Paolo Malatesta (c. 1246–1285) and Francesca da Rimini (1255– 1285), the doomed lovers Paolo and Francesca from Dante's Divine Comedy, in a painted canted frame (Figs. 1-2). They are naked, except for the swathe of drapery which entwines them. Paolo and Francesca are shown being swept along on the wind of Dante’s Inferno. Francesca buries her head in her hands, while behind her, Paolo, his head lowered towards the nape of her neck, clasps his hands around her waist. In Dante’s Divine Comedy Paolo and Francesca are among the lovers doomed to be swept along on the wind in the second circle of hell. The couple are based on Francesca da Rimini (d. 1285) and Paolo, brother of Giancotto Malatesta of Rimini, to whom Francesca was betrothed; Giancotto stabbed the two lovers to death. There was apparently another version of Paolo and Francesca for the Marquess of Landsdowne (Boxwood, Wiltshire) in 1837, once reported as being by the artist’s father, Sir Richard Westmacott RA (1775–1856). The work was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1838 was said to have been made of marble. The present relief shows affinities to the elder Richard’s figures of Venus and Apollo in the Dream of Horace, of 1823.

The original frame inscribed ‘PAOLO E FRANCESCA. Que’duo che insieme vanno, E pajon si al vento esser legieri, Nulla speranza li conforta mai, Non che di posa, ma di minor pena, Dante Inferno Canto 5.’

Cf. another plaster version of the present relief located in Nostell Priory, West Yorkshire, UK, dated 27 ‘Aug. 1838’, 48 x 29.5 in. (121.9 x 74.9 cm.) (Fig. 3).

Research: James Graham-Stuart

Fig. 1 Richard Westmacott III, RA, A plaster relief of Paolo and Francesca Plaster, 54.2 x 36.2 in. (138 x 93 cm.) New York Private Collection

Fig. 2 Detail, Richard Westmacott III, RA, A plaster relief of Paolo and Francesca Plaster, 54.2 x 36.2 in. (138 x 93 cm.) New York Private Collection

Fig. 3 Richard Westmacott III, RA, A plaster relief of Paolo and Francesca Plaster, 48 x 29.5 in. (121.9 x 74.9 cm.) Nostell Priory, West Yorkshire, UK