Ottavo cerchio - Bolgia V - Barattieri

Fifteenth painting in the 'Inferno di Dante Alighieri' series.

The eighth circle of Hell, also know as Malebolge, is a large, funnel-shaped cavern, itself divided into ten concentric circular trenches or ditches. Each trench is called a bolgia (Italian for "pouch" or "ditch").

The fifth bolgia hosts the barrators: they are immersed in a lake of boiling pitch, guarded by demons called the Malebranche ("Evil Claws"), who tear them to pieces with claws and grappling hooks if they catch them above the surface of the pitch.