![]() ![]() Limbo includes green fields and a castle with seven gates to represent the seven virtues, the dwelling place of the wisest men of antiquity, including Virgil himself, as well as the Persian polymath Avicenna. Without baptism (“the portal of the faith that you embrace”) they lacked the hope for something greater than rational minds can conceive. Limbo shares many characteristics with the Asphodel Meadows thus the guiltless damned are punished by living in a deficient form of Heaven. In Limbo reside the unbaptized and the virtuous pagans, who, though not sinful, did not accept Christ. Note that circle 8 consists of ten concentric subcircles. Follow Dante’s descent circle by circle through the eternal abode of lost souls, down to the pit of Hell at the center of the earth. To survive this ordeal, he must visit the three realms of the afterlife, beginning with Hell. Stradanus combines elements of Italian Mannerism, such as painstaking attention to detail, with distinctive Flemish traits like the physiognomy of the demonic figure steering Dante’s boat, who shows a deeply harrowing expression.Early in the spring of 1300, “midway along the road of our life,” Dante is lost and alone in a dark, foreboding forest. This illustration refers to Canto VIII, where the wrathful and slothful are punished. The emotional vibrancy with which Delacroix depicted the scared expressions of Dante and Virgil and the scary faces of evil creatures led art critic Thiers to affirm that “No canvas better reveals the future of a great painter.” Public Domainĭelacroix depicts scenes from the 8th Canto of the Inferno.įlemish painter Jan van der Straet, known by his Italian name “Stradanus,” completed a series of illustrations of the Divine Comedy between 15, currently preserved at the Laurentian Library in Florence. Delacroix depicts scenes from the 8th Canto of the “Inferno.” Dante and Virgil are trying to cross the River Sytx, filled with dangers such as tormented souls and evil creatures trying to capsize their vessel, in order to reach the city of Dis. Public Domain William Blake's depiction of the Inferno’s Canto VĬompleted in 1822 by French artist Eugène Delacroix, this work signals the artist’s shift from Neoclassical style to Romanticism. Here, Blake depicts the “Inferno” Canto V, where Dante describes the punishment for the souls of the lustful, who are battered in an eternal current that leads nowhere. Blake never fully completed his project, but left behind some harrowing depictions of Dante’s work, which combine faithful depictions of his descriptions with the painter’s own interpretation of sin, guilt, punishment and salvation. Public Domain Early Renaissance painter Sandro Botticcelli is the author of perhaps the most famous depiction of the Inferno, visualized as a reversed cone containing damned souls on each level.Įnglish painter William Blake started working on Divine Comedy illustrations just two years before passing away in 1827. They appear naked and tormented, locked within a system of embankments that prevents their escape. In this illustration, Botticelli depicts damned souls who have harmed nature, art or God. But when it comes to harrowing drawings, it’s his work on the Canto XV that stands out. Here are some of the most poignant visualizations of Dante’s Inferno.Įarly Renaissance painter Sandro Botticcelli is the artist of perhaps the most famous depiction of the Inferno, visualized as a reversed cone containing damned souls on each level. His detail-rich descriptions of Hell, envisioned as nine concentric circles containing souls of those “who have rejected spiritual values by yielding to bestial appetites or violence, or by perverting their human intellect to fraud or malice against their fellowmen,” have inspired artists for the last five centuries. In the 14,233 verses of this poem, Dante envisions a trip to the afterlife, guided first by the Roman poet Virgil, who leads him through Hell and Purgatory, and then by his beloved Beatrice, who leads him through Paradise. ![]() ![]() From Botticelli to Delacroix, Dante’s literary depiction of Hell has inspired artists for centuries.ĭante Alighieri’s depiction of the afterlife has inspired generations of readers since the Divine Comedy was first published in 1472. ![]()
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