To celebrate the life and work of Dante, a small selection of paintings inspired by the Divine Comedy, and his ‘Vita Nuova’.
Divine Comedy
Some of his earliest independent paintings, including two wonderful pairs based on legend and contemporary literature.
Illustrated table of contents to all the articles here describing Dante’s Divine Comedy and the great paintings and prints that accompany it.
If Inferno and Purgatory are the stick, Paradise must be the carrot – the incentive to live a pious and upright life. Shown in paintings by Blake, engravings by Doré, and others.
In which Dante passes through the realm of fixed stars, then the Primum Mobile, which is the origin of time, and finally the mind of God in the Empyrean. One last Blake too.
In which Dante learns about just rulers and the unjust from a giant eagle made from spirits, and sees Jacob’s ladder leading up to the highest heaven.
Dante meets St Thomas Aquinas in the shell of the sun, then moves upward to that of Mars, where there are holy warriors.
Dante and Beatrice ascend to the shell of Mercury, where they meet Justinian, then on to Venus, where love is the order of the day.
In which Dante, guided by Beatrice, ascends to the first shell of the heavens, containing the moon. Many paintings of Piccarda Donati and the Empress Constance result.
A succinct summary of Dante’s ascent of the mountain-island of Purgatory, with the best of the paintings from Blake to Rossetti.
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