Some of the finest paintings of all Dante’s work: Waterhouse, William Blake and others show the arrival of Beatrice in her chariot.
narrative
It’s sometimes hard to read a painting without understanding an inscription. Masaccio, Rossetti, Moreau, Corinth and Botticelli gives us some clues.
Rembrandt’s Belshazzar’s Feast, Tintoretto, William Blake, and Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s painting of Sappho each rely on words.
Just before he ascends to the terrestrial heaven on top of the island-mountain of Purgatory, Dante dreams of sisters Leah and Rachel, from the Bible.
Where the gluttons are starved of food and water, and are emaciated as a result. In the next terrace, they are purged of lust by a wall of flames.
Two paintings of the martyrdom by stoning of Saint Stephen, one by Rembrandt, together with Gustave Doré’s fine engravings take us further up the mountain of Purgatory.
So into the first terrace of Purgatory proper, for those who suffered from pride. On up to the second, for the envious, whose eyelids are sewn shut.
As they can’t continue ascending Purgatory after dark, Dante and Virgil rest overnight in a valley with rulers. In the morning, Dante has been carried up to the gate into Purgatory itself.
Look at statues of the Virgin Mary, and they often show her with a foot on a snake. What has that to do with the Immaculate Conception? Rubens, Tiepolo and Caravaggio have the answer.
The Judaeo-Christian tradition lacks any goddess, unlike its predecessors in Mediterranean cultures. Is there an equivalent among its saints, or the Virgin Mary? An exploration in paintings.
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