A print of this picture hung on our living room wall far back as I remember. My mom tells me that our whole family went to G. Fox in Hartford to pick out a picture, and selected this. I was too young to remember that, but today I find this choice quite interesting, as it is an allegory of the family unit. Notice how the boat tears through the sea, blasting spray off the bow & churning up a wake behind, the wind nearly tipping it over with it's force. Yet this same wind does not so much as blow a hat off the crew's heads. The message is simple: outside the family the forces of nature may rage, but internally all is calm. The family charts its course & works as a team, each with its own task. The father trims the sail, the sons balance the craft, the daughter looks ahead and keeps things on course. The mother is represented by the boat itself.

Salvador Dali: Cantos 5 (Lust)

Thus I descended from the first circle down to the second, which encloses a smaller space, but so much more suffering that it goads the souls to shriek. There stands Minos bristling and snarling; he examings the soul's guild at the entrance; he judges and passes sentences by how he wraps.

        The above excerpt from Dante's Inferno is the beginning of Cantos 5, describing the second circle of Hell. It is populated by those overcome by lust, trapped in a violent storm, never to touch each other again.

        A print of this came into my possesion through the estate of my brother-in-law. It now hangs in my study.