Italian 'hell' paintings scare Chinese visitors away   

湖北美院展出“但丁地獄”油畫 被指“重口”(圖)

昨日，一場名為《神曲·但丁的地獄》的展覽在湖北省美術院美術館開幕，意大利女畫家羅伯塔·可妮用20多張寫實油畫詮釋她心中的“神曲地獄”。畫中地獄景象充滿血跡傷痕，不少觀眾表示太過“重口味”，看得不舒服。[查看全文]

(ECNS) -- An Italian painter's modern take on Dante's "Divine Comedy" has scared away many visitors at an exhibition in central China's Hubei province, according to the Wuhan-based Changjiang Daily.

More than 20 realistic renditions of Dante's "hell" were exhibited at the Hubei Institute of Fine Arts on Sunday.

Filled with blood, despair and tortured naked bodies, the paintings are too much for some visitors, including an old couple who hurried out after glancing at them, the newspaper said.

Xia, a female visitor, said: "It is not easy to appreciate the pictures."

The creator of the paintings, also a female, said Italians have long been accustomed to such paintings. As for the "uncomfortable feelings" stirred in Wuhan, she says "it's a good thing, because art should touch people's hearts and cause them to think."