Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta appraised by Dante and Virgil (and several variant titles) is a composition painted in at least six very similar versions by Ary Scheffer between 1822 and 1855; all are in oils on canvas.

[1] In the first volume, Inferno, of The Divine Comedy, Dante and Virgil meet Francesca and her lover Paolo in the second circle of hell, reserved for the lustful.

He asks her what led to her and Paolo's damnation, and Francesca's story strikes such a chord within Dante that he faints out of pity.

Considered Scheffer's best version of the subject, it was acquired in 1835 by Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans, inherited in 1842 by his wife Hélène, duchesse d'Orléans, and sold in Paris in January 1853 to Anatoly Nikolaievich Demidov, 1st Prince of San Donato.

[7] A third full-size version of 1855 is now in the Louvre in Paris; measuring 171 by 239 cm (67 by 94 in), it was acquired in 1900 from the estate of the artist's sister, Cornélia Scheffer.