More hell. who to look for in Botticelli's illustration for the "Divine Comedy"

In the form of a funnel. Unbaptized infants and virtuous non-Christians in limbo are given over to painless grief; voluptuous people who fall into the second circle for lust suffer torment and torment by a hurricane; gluttons in the third circle rot in the rain and hail; misers and spendthrifts drag weights from place to place in the fourth circle; the angry and lazy always fight in the swamps of the fifth circle; heretics and false prophets lie in the burning graves of the sixth; all kinds of rapists, depending on the subject of the abuse, suffer in different zones of the seventh circle - boil in a ditch of hot blood, tormented by harpies or languish in the desert under the fiery rain; deceivers of those who did not trust languish in the cracks of the eighth circle: some are stuck in fetid feces, some are boiling in tar, some are chained, some are tormented by reptiles, some are gutted; and the ninth circle is prepared for those who deceived. Among the latter is Lucifer, frozen in ice, who torments in his three jaws the traitors of the majesty of the earth and heaven (Judas, Marcus Junius Brutus and Cassius - traitors of Jesus and Caesar, respectively).

The map of Hell was part of a large commission - an illustration of Dante's Divine Comedy. Unknown exact dates creation of manuscripts. Researchers agree that Botticelli began working on them in the mid-1480s and, with some interruptions, was busy with them until the death of the customer, Lorenzo the Magnificent de' Medici.

Fragment of a map of hell. (wikipedia.org)

Not all pages have been preserved. Presumably, there should be about 100 of them; 92 manuscripts have reached us, four of which are fully colored. Several pages of text or numbers are blank, suggesting that Botticelli did not complete the work. Most are sketches. At that time, paper was expensive, and the artist could not simply throw away a sheet of paper with a failed sketch. Therefore, Botticelli first worked with a silver needle, squeezing out the design. Some manuscripts show how the design changed: from the composition as a whole to the position of individual figures. Only when the artist was satisfied with the sketch did he trace the outlines in ink.

The torment of sinners. (wikipedia.org)

On the reverse side of each illustration, Botticelli indicated Dante's text, which explained the drawing.

Context

"" is a kind of response to the events of his own life. Having failed in political struggle in Florence and being expelled from hometown, he devoted himself to enlightenment and self-education, including the study of ancient authors. It is no coincidence that the guide in The Divine Comedy is Virgil, the ancient Roman poet.

The horrors of hell. (wikipedia.org)

The dark forest in which the hero gets lost is a metaphor for the poet’s sins and quests. Virgil (reason) saves the hero (Dante) from terrible beasts (mortal sins) and leads him through Hell to Purgatory, after which he gives way to Beatrice (divine grace) on the threshold of heaven.

The suffering of sinners. (wikipedia.org)

The fate of the artist

Botticelli was from a tanner's family; as a teenager he was apprenticed to a jeweler. However, the boy liked sketching and drawing much more. Immersed in a world of fantasy, Sandro forgot about his surroundings. He turned life into art, and art became life for him.

"Spring", 1482. (wikipedia.org)

Among his contemporaries, Botticelli was not perceived as genius master. At that time, they generally did not think about their contemporaries in terms of genius. The more orders, the higher the aristocracy valued the artist. And Botticelli also experienced a rise when his workshop was extremely busy, and the Pope himself invited him to paint Sistine Chapel, and the fall when the aristocracy turned away from the beautiful Sandro.

"Birth of Venus", 1484−1486. (wikipedia.org)

Botticelli was patronized by the Medici, famous art connoisseurs. Vasari writes in his biography that the painter spent his last years as a decrepit, beggarly old man, but this is not so.

The artist was significantly influenced by his acquaintance with the monk Girolamo Savonarola, who in his sermons convincingly called for repentance and renunciation of luxury. After the monk was found guilty of heresy, Botticelli practically closed himself off from the world in his workshop. Last years he worked little, suffering in soul and body. The artist died at the age of 66 in Florence.

gjanna wrote a book review
Dante AlighieriThe Divine Comedy

Well, there is enmity all around, brutal executions, plague and other delights of the Middle Ages, so Dante’s harsh hell, apparently, could be seen by any resident of Florence, Naples or, for example, Bremen. Speaking of "see you". Surely you heard what Dante's contemporaries said: " great poet I probably saw hell with my own eyes, since I described it very vividly in every detail." Believe me, hell really breathes on the reader with fire, ice, boiling... uh... various liquids. Sinners cover their faces with their feet ; they cry, and their tears flow down between their buttocks, because their anatomy has been slightly damaged from being in this glorious place; the harlots, boiling in excrement, tear themselves to blood, apparently so that life does not seem boring to them while you read. “Hell” will definitely not be necessary. Dante’s contemporaries drew maps of his hell, interpreted his poems. By the way, in the walks of Alighieri and Virgil, who acts as a guide, sinners periodically come across, pouring out predictions. I don’t know if they came true, since they very much did. they are closely tied to Dante’s contemporaries about whom, to be honest, I have not heard anything. If Dante in this way took revenge on his enemies who expelled him from Florence, he was a cruel guy.
So, HELL. In order to leave myself a kind of small cheat sheet-guide, I found such a diagram on the Internet. In case someone else finds it useful...
Dante's Inferno
You can try to find a place for yourself, for example, I’m confused and will tell you about my location when I get there.
But now the cruel and colorful hell is over and after meeting Lucifer, chewing Brutus and Judas, we find ourselves in Purgatory, and then in Paradise. It’s a pity, but heaven is not at all so voluminous and, having read “The Divine Comedy” to the end, I absolutely cannot remember anything bright and pleasant. For some reason Dante believed that:

Like the shores, the rotating firmament of the moon
Hides and reveals tirelessly,
So fate has power over Florence.

So it can't sound weird
I'm talking about the noble Florentines,
Even though their memory is foggy in time.

The memory of them in time is so foggy that Filippi, Ugi, Grechi for modern reader, for the most part, just Italian surnames and nothing more. So most of Paradise transits from the eyes to space without lingering in consciousness. And, of course, Beatrice. The girl whom Dante loved in his youth meets him in purgatory and takes him higher and higher, to paradise. Interestingly, Dante was married, he had children, but not a single sonnet, not a single stanza of the Divine Comedy is dedicated to his wife. Beatrice is so beautiful that her bright face overshadows the delights of heaven. Oh, this idealism, when it is no longer possible to be disappointed in the subject of idealization!
“The Divine Comedy” has been read, and now Boccaccio sparkling with humor and invention awaits me, who, by the way, was a contemporary of Dante and these two, so different, judging by their works, the creator, corresponded despite the significant difference in age.

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Mar. 5, 2016

02:09 pm - MORE HELL. Who to look for in Botticelli's illustration for The Divine Comedy

The illustration is based on a still from the television film De Goddelijke Komedie van Dante en Inferno van Dan Brown, 2013

We descend into the depths of Dante's hell and review the habits and entertainments of its inhabitants.
So, what to do in Botticelli's Hell?
Artist Early Renaissance Sandro Botticelli (1440–1510) is known primarily for his radiant portraits of unidentified young people, very reminiscent of modern model tests, and only then for his ponderous paintings on a religious theme. In one of these paintings, Botticelli depicted the structure of Dante's hell. Let's try to take a quick look around this detailed universe without resorting to art-historical gibberish.

The artist completed this work in 1480. IN currently it is kept in the Vatican Library

Why it will be easy for you to understand Botticelli

1. “Hell” was created as a penance, but not as a in a high sense. In fact, the artist had a cheerful disposition; he liked to write most of all. beautiful girls and boys. But it was in deep hell that Botticelli found himself, having spent all the money he earned in the service of the Pope on excesses and superficial hobbies. I had to return home, read Dante, and think a lot.

2. The picture became especially popular in the 21st century, when the pop fiction writer Dan Brown made “Hell” a cipher in his next bestseller about ancient ciphers “Inferno”. So the illustration for one book became the hero of another.

3. Of all the Western concepts of hell, it is this Mediterranean version that is closest to ours cultural code. Here, of course, there is Purgatory, which is alien to Orthodox people, but the punishments and torment of sinners are already depicted in detail, which was not in earlier versions, and which is not very clearly depicted in the deserted and endlessly dull Mephistophelian hell. Plus, it's funnel shaped!

4. The artist devotes Special attention punishing corrupt officials. They are tormented in the eighth circle by unpleasant entities with spears, who, by the way, are also doomed to eternal torment in this place. Here everyone is equal: both high-ranking former laymen and, in fact, the devils also suffer. Simply because they are devils.

5. Botticelli’s “Hell” is essentially a comic book. And his main characters are himself and the poet Virgil. They, elegant, are depicted many times, like in a cartoon. Their visions are typical of creative people and tough guys in general: the journey begins with the spectacle of the demon-tormented souls of pimps, informers, opportunists and prostitutes wallowing in the mud.

Circle First. Limbo

What also gathered here were not baptized infants, pagans and lovers of the latest religious movements, but also ancient poets and thinkers: Homer, Plato, Socrates. The Old Testament righteous Noah and Abraham waited here for their turn in Paradise.

Circle Two. Voluptuousness

Those who have sinned in the name of love or confused it with banal lust have gathered here. The souls of sinners are twisted by gusts of wind, like in a centrifuge. Everyone is sick.

Circle Three. Gluttony

The gluttons rot here in the snow and rain, contemplating their behavior. But all to no avail - Cerberus comes and eats the loaded sinners.

Circle Four. Greed

The souls of greedy people are busy with meaningless work: two crowds of sinners are pushing heavy loads in front of them, moving towards each other. They collide and then separate to start all over again.

Circle Five. Anger and laziness

IN Lately You can justify your incontinence and promiscuity with increased emotionality. Those who did this, in Dante's hell, will forever fight with their own kind in an endless swamp.

Circle Six. Heretics and pseudo-gurus

Furies fly everywhere here. They watch over false teachers and prophets who, crushed by inescapable sorrow, lie motionless in open tombs.

Circle Seven. Murderers

Criminal souls of all stripes, who committed violent crimes during their lifetime, eternally suffer under the fiery rain and boil in a bloody river. From time to time, hungry dogs and harpies are involved in the execution of punishments.

Circle Eight. Crooks and thieves

“Sinners walk in two opposing streams, scourged by demons, stuck in fetid feces, some of their bodies are chained in rocks, fire streams down their feet. Someone is boiling in the tar, and if he sticks out, the devils stick the hooks. Those clad in lead robes are placed on a red-hot brazier, sinners are gutted and tormented by vermin, leprosy and lichen.” Exhaustively.

Circle Ninth. Traitors and apostates

This is the lowest circle, encased in ice. This is an unbearable minus. All famous traitors like Brutus and Judas are endlessly chewed by Lucifer himself.

He languishes on the lowest floor.

Botticelli's drawings illustrating the Songs of Hell from Dante's Divine Comedy, filled with small, rushing figures of sinners, are full of an alarming confusion of lines; some of them, where the motif of a grandiose vault-staircase connecting the circles of hell is repeated, has genuine stern grandeur.

The colored sheets for Cantos ten and eighteen give an idea of how Botticelli intended the entire cycle of illustrations. Main characters- Dante and Virgil - attract attention with bright robes against a faded background.

Traveling through the sixth circle of Hell, Dante and Virgil end up in the city of Dit. There are stone tombs in which fire burns. Sinners, followers of the teachings of Epicurus who do not believe in the afterlife, are punished there.

Everywhere you look there is the appearance of an old tomb, -
So here you could see graves everywhere,
For those who died with the bitterest punishment;
A persistent flame, kindled latently,
Burned in these pits, making them so hot,
How to heat iron is difficult.
In open coffins and in open crayfish
The tormented breasts moaned bitterly
Outcasts - you know, their vision was pitiful.

“The Divine Comedy” by Dante “Hell” Canto IX, verses 115-123.

While traveling through the eighth circle of hell, they encounter the souls of sinners, tormented by demons for various sins. The souls of deceivers, pimps and seducers moving in rows are subjected to cruel scourging; the souls of hypocrites and harlots are immersed in a ditch of sewage.

Naked sinners walk in rows:
Some rush towards us in alarm,
And in our step - but with a wider step - others,
Like the Romans, who are many in number,
In the anniversary year, avoiding the crush,
The bridge was divided into two roads:
One column stretched, walking
Towards the castle, to the Church of St. Peter,
And another one was walking towards her, up the hill.
Here and there in the depths of the harsh
Demons with horns brutally scourged
The sinful backs of the naked people.

“The Divine Comedy” by Dante “Hell” Canto XVIII, verses 25-36.

The drawing for Song Thirty-one depicts ancient giants who rebelled against the gods. As punishment, they were chained in a dark well. Giants symbolize the brute force of nature.

Among them is a builder Tower of Babel King Nimrod blowing a horn suspended from his neck. Gigint Elfiat, tightly entwined with five turns of chain, starting from the neck so that right hand pressed to the body from behind, and the left one from the front. Antaeus, the only one free from chains, takes Dante and Virgil to the next, ninth circle.

Illustrating the thirty-fourth and final Canto of Hell, Botticelli depicts in the last circle of hell, called Giudecca, a three-headed Lucifer, with wings like bat. In the teeth of the three heads of the prince of darkness are the three greatest sinners and traitors - Brutus and Cassius, the murderers of Caesar, and Judas, who betrayed Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Prince of darkness, above whom all Hell is piled,
Half raised his chest made of ice;
And the giant is more than suitable for me,
What is in his hand (so that you can count,
What is he like in full height, and the power of vision,
I fully comprehended what appeared to us).
Anciently beautiful, today it’s disgusting,
He raised his disdainful gaze to the Creator -
He is the embodiment of all vices and evil!
And it was necessary to look so disgusting -
His head was equipped with three faces!
The first is above the chest, red, savage;
And on the sides there are two, the place where they meet
Over the shoulders; with a brutal look
Every face looked around wildly.
The first one seemed to be yellow and white,
And the left one is like those who lived for a long time
Near the Nile Falls, blackened.
Under each is a pair of the widest wings,
As befits a bird so powerful;
The goldfinches never matured under such a sail.
Without feathers, like a bat;
He rotated them, and the three winds blew
They flew, each in a viscous stream;
These jets made Cocytus freeze, freezing.
Six eyes wept; three mouths through lips
They were oozing saliva and turning pink with blood.
And here, and here, and there the teeth tormented
By the sinner; So there are only three of them,
And they endure great suffering.

Reading Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy, a poem rich in references to 14th-century Florentine politics and medieval Catholic theology, can seem like a daunting task. Much depends on the translation and, of course, on the illustrations, maps and diagrams. They give the text figurative materiality, helping the reader to follow bright events the poem shows how the heroes go through nine circles of hell, meeting its doomed inhabitants at each one, right down to Lucifer frozen in the ice, gnawing Judas, Brutus and Cassius with three mouths.

"The Divine Comedy", becoming one of the greatest literary works, spawned a craze for “cartography from hell.” The desire to depict Dante's "Hell" was fueled by the popularity of cartography and the Renaissance's obsession with proportion and measurement.

Calculations by Antonio Manetti, 1529.

The passion for mapping Hell began with Antonio Manetti, Florentine architect and 15th-century mathematics. He worked diligently on "place, shape and size", for example estimating the width of Limbo to be approximately 141 kilometers.

Illustration by Antonio Manetti.

However, disputes arose among scientists regarding mapping fictional world. Thinkers asked questions: What is the circumference of Hell? How deep is it? Where is the entrance? Even Galileo Galilei got involved in the discussions. In 1588, he gave two lectures in which he explored the dimensions of Hell and eventually supported Manetti's version of the topography of Hell.

Map of Hell by Botticelli.

One of the first maps of Dante's Inferno appeared in a series of ninety illustrations by Sandro Botticelli, a compatriot of the poet and creator High Renaissance, who created his drawings in the 1480-90s by order of another famous Florentine - Lorenzo de' Medici. Deborah Parker, professor of Italian at the University of Virginia, writes: "Botticelli's Map of Inferno has long been regarded as one of the most compelling visual representations... of Dante's descent with Virgil through the 'terrible valley of pain.'"

Map of Hell by Michelangelo Caetani, 1855.

Dante's Inferno has been visualized countless times, from purely schematic representations, as in Michelangelo Caetani's 1855 diagram, which has little detail but a clear systematic use of color, to richly illustrated maps, as in Jacques Callot's 1612 version.

Illustrative version of Jacques Callot's map of Hell, 1612.

Even after hundreds of years of cultural change and upheaval, Inferno and its horrific scenes of torture continue to capture the interest of readers and illustrators. For example, below is Daniel Heald's version. His 1994 map lacks Botticelli's gilded sheen, but is another clear visual guide through the poet's afterlife.

Daniel Heald, 1994