La Divina Commedia/Barque of the Dante/Chapter 26?

[AyanEva]

No: HPFGUIDX 141888

I seriously couldn't find any thread to tack this on to; probably
because this proposal is a little odd and all based one scene in
chapter 26 and a painting. I hope it hasn't been mentioned; I searched
but didn't see anything. Anyway, on to the point.

I'm an "art historian in training," so when reading the whole "boat
crossing with freaky inferi" bit from Chapter 26- The Cave, the only
thing that I can think of is "Barque of the Dante" by Delacroix... Try
the following link for the painting, but a Google image search will
get you plenty results as well: 
http://www.uh.edu/engines/romanticism/barque-dante.jpg

IF this was a purposeful send up, and this is a HUGE IF, is it just a
JKR *nudge nudge wink wink* to Delacroix or is there something else in
this? A theme perhaps? I think salvation, while not in reference to
The Divine Comedy, has been mentioned; it seems almost too simple, but
maybe. The sins of man? Too general, me thinks. What then, if
anything? Can we match characters with characters?

The problem is that I don't know The Divine Comedy very well (read: at
all), so now I'm struggling my way through an English translation of
La Divina Commedia to see what I can find. I think I've only made it
to Inferno Canto 03 because I really got lost on the bit about the
leopard(?) and the dude on the horse. Stupid metaphors....*grumbles*
I'm still not sure what they were talking about. All I could get is
something about the animalistic nature of man that causes one to stray
from the path of righteousness. And then Dante(???) was running from
his demons (represented by the leopard or some four-legged feline
beast thingie) instead of facing them. After that, I have NO idea why
Dante(???) and the guy on the horse ended up wandering over to the
river Styx, or whatever you want to call it, in the first place. And I
don't know where they were going in the boat because I haven't gotten
that far. However, I did get to the spot right before where I think
the "Barque of the Dante" painting comes in. It's the souls of the
damned in the water bit and the demon oarsman beating the crap out of
people with his oar because they're not moving fast enough. Or
something like that. 

I could definitely imagine JKR reading The Divine Comedy at some point
in the past. I must say, I'm finding Dante very fascininating, if a
bit obtuse (obtuse in this case meaning "difficult to comprehend") in
his writing. That fact that I'm reading a translation doesn't help
any. I'm probably way off base and won't get anywhere with my Divine
Comedy theory; *if* I can ever get through the whole thing and
understand it. I'm not even sure *what* exactly the theory *is* yet.
I'm working on it! 

In the end, who knows? I just might have my first set of small, leaky,
arm floaties like the kids use in swimming pools. It certainly won't
be a boat; I doubt it'll even make it to innertube status. Meh. I've
always wanted to read Dante anyway, so my time's not completely wasted.

As much as I shy away from strictly Christian interpretations of the
books, I'm willing to go with a broader theme of some sort that just
so happens to be expressed in a Christian work such as that by Dante.
A compromise, then.

Oh, if you want the English translation of Divina Commedia, here:
http://dante.ilt.columbia.edu/comedy/comedy_hc/dante_longfellow/inf01.html

That should be a trustworthy translation, as it's from Columbia
University. 

I think I'm done now! I don't even know if this

AyanEva