The scene depicted here is taken from Dante's Divine Comedy . The writings of the Italian poet were highly popular in the 19th century, as shown by this painting illustrating an episode from book XIII of Purgatory. Hippolyte Flandrin used the passage where the poet, led by his guide Virgil, arrives in the circle of the envious people, who have become blind in both body and soul. Virgil leans towards one of them, listening with compassion to the tale of his sins. The choice of subject also evokes a more personal episode in Flandrin's life: one year earlier he had himself been in danger of going blind due to an illness and could not help but be touched by this story.

The artist created this work to send back to France in his second year at the French Academy in Rome. He began the work at the beginning of 1835 and completed it in time for it to be presented at the Paris Salon the following year, where Flandrin won a second-class medal. The quality of line in this work, executed according to the instruction of his teacher Ingres, confirms priority given to this part of creation. The colour is restrained, reduced almost to a monochrome in the background – devised in collaboration with his brother Paul – which echoes the text and its description of a 'bare and arid landscape', 'made entirely of pallid stone'.