Death of Francesca da Rimini and of Paolo Malatesta

'Death of Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta' (1870) draws from Canto V of Dante's Inferno, where the poet encounters the souls of Francesca and Paolo in the Second Circle — condemned for their adulterous love that ended in their murder by Francesca's husband Gianciotto Malatesta around 1285. The subject had been treated by Ingres, Ary Scheffer, and others, and Cabanel brings it to the Musée d'Orsay's collection with his characteristic academic elegance. The moment depicted is the murder itself: Gianciotto's blade descending as the lovers are discovered. Dante's story of passion, guilt, and violent death was a perpetual source for French academic painters who found in the medieval Italian setting license for both erotic subject matter and moral weight. Cabanel renders the double death as a scene of tragic beauty rather than mere violence.

The composition groups the three figures in a tight triangle of action — murderer, dying Paolo, falling Francesca — giving maximum dramatic compression to the moment. Cabanel uses pale flesh tones for the victims against the dark figure of the avenger, a color strategy that aligns sympathy with the lovers. The drapery and architectural setting ground the medieval Italian subject.