Robert Rauschenberg's Dante is Rauschenberg's Dante. But it is also a synopsis of Dante interpretations that preceded it, and a prophecy of those to follow.

Since the Inferno is an allegory and allegory demands interpretation, bear in mind that an allegory is a veiled presentation of a meaning implied but not expressly stated. Rauschenberg has often drawn veils over his images, hungered for morsels of real life only to blur and reconstrue them.

. . . The endless cross-references within Rauschenberg's illustrations indicate that he reads the Inferno as a total atmosphere rather than as a nearly divided, numerically symbolic allegory.

. . . Since Dante shuttles backward and forward both in time and space, Rauschenberg has adapted his illustrations accordingly. His symbols appear and disappear, emerging with the same rhythm in which Dante's capital symbols occur. Time, above all time, is implied in Rauschenberg's technique of juxtaposition. He enters with Dante the complicated, circular structure of the Inferno, and wanders purposefully.