Francesca da Rimini

Francesca da Rimini of 1895, held at Schloss Weimar, was painted when Böcklin was sixty-eight years old and represents his late engagement with Dante's Inferno. The story of Francesca and Paolo — condemned to circle eternally in the second circle of Hell for adulterous love — was among the most frequently illustrated passages of the Divina Commedia in the nineteenth century, from Ingres's neoclassical treatment to Rodin's sculpture The Kiss. Böcklin's version reflects his own vision of mythological and literary figures as psychologically present beings rather than decorative references. The late date places it among the last group of major works before his health declined, and the Weimar canvas shows a mature painter wrestling with themes of passion, punishment, and the supernatural that had occupied him throughout his career.

The 1895 canvas shows Böcklin's late handling — simplified but not diminished, with a direct, almost brutal approach to form and colour that his later years intensified rather than softened. The infernal setting required him to work with a predominantly dark, reddish palette suggestive of Hell's interior light, contrasted against the pale figures of the damned lovers.