Who is Beatrice? Beatrice was the main inspiration for Dante Alighieri‘s Vita Nuova and is commonly identified with the Beatrice who appears as one of his guides in his masterpiece La Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy). Did Beatrice really exist? The life of this famous woman is shrouded in mystery. Many historians have questioned whether…
Botticini‘s vast altarpiece “Assumption of the Virgin” is a painting undertaken in tempera on a wood panel by the Early Renaissance Italian painter Francesco Botticini. It was originally installed in the church of San Pier Maggiore in Florence in 1477. The altarpiece remained there until 1784, when the church was demolished. It was then purchased by the National Gallery in the 1880s, but hasn’t been put on display for many years. During the past months, it has been the subject of the exhibition “Visions of Paradise: Botticini’s Palmieri Altarpiece” at London’s National Gallery
Dante Alighieri was an Italian Medieval poet, moral philosopher, political thinker, and author of the poetic trilogy, The Divine Comedy, whose first part lends its name to Dan Brown’s novel Inferno.
He is widely considered the major Italian poet of the Middle Ages and is recognized as the father of the Italian language.
Domenico di Michelino was an Italian painter who was born and died in Florence (1417–1491). His most famous work, La commedia illumina Firenze (The Comedy Illuminating Florence), can be found in Florence’s Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. Robert Langdon, the main character in Dan Brown’s Inferno, describes this famous painting during the conference “Divine Dante: Symbols of Hell,” hosted by the Società Dante Alighieri Vienna.
Paul Gustave Doré was a prolific French engraver, artist, illustrator, sculptor, and primarily, wood and steel carver.
Robert Langdon, the main character in Dan Brown’s Inferno, being a renown Dante scholar, exhibited a Gustave Doré lithograph depicting a dark entrance to a tunnel carved into the face of an austere cliff during a conference hosted by one of the world’s oldest Dante societies—the Società Dante Alighieri Vienna. Moreover, during one of his adventures, Langdon refers to Doré’s work Dandolo Preaching the Crusade.
Minos is a character partly mythological and partly historical.
Can these two things work together?
He has been handed down by historians as a just and wise king of Crete. For this reason, after his death, he became one of the judges of the underworld.
Canto 34 is divided into two equal parts. The first part contains the description of the part of Hell called Judecca and the sight of Lucifer.
The second part is comprised of a description of Dante’s departure from Hell and the story of the angel Lucifer, his rebellion and defeat.
Canto 16 of the Paradiso, mentioned by Dan Brown in his Inferno, is dedicated to Cacciaguida and the Florentines.
Cacciaguida was an ancestor of Dante of which we know very little. We know that he was knighted and participated in the Second Crusade (1147-1149), where he died.
Canto 3 of Dante’s Inferno provides a description of the Underworld. The main points of that canto consist of the description above the Gate of Hell, the Ante-Inferno, which contains a large number of condemned shades, as well as the passage across the River Acheron.
The following is a selection of artists whose works of art have been inspired by The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri.
According to the image that Dante gave us, Hell and Purgatory are part of the terrestrial sphere, whereas Paradise is out of the Earth.
Dante obviously follows the Christian doctrine that places God in the Heaven.
I found myself within a forest dark, Langdon thought, recalling the ominous first canto of Dante’s masterwork, for the straightforward pathway had been lost.
(Dan Brown, Inferno)
