YALE
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

[IS COPY OF BOTTICELLI'S DRAWINGS IS PART OF THE FIRST
ENGLISH EDITION.
n deference to the wishes of Collectors it is issued with the English imprint solely, but it is
lublished in the United $tates only by Dodd, Mead and Company, New York.

DRAWINGS

BY

SANDRO BOTTICELLI

FOR

DANTE'S DIVINA COMMEDIA

500 copies printed for England and America.

DRAWINGS BY SANDRO
BOTTICELLI FOR DANTE'S
DIVINA COMMEDIA
REDUCED FACSIMILES AFTER THE
ORIGINALS IN THE ROYAL MUSEUM
BERLIN AND IN THE VATICAN LIBRARY
WITH AN INTRODUCTION
AND COMMENTARY BY F. LIPPMANN

LONDON. LAWRENCE AND BULLEN

MDCCCXCVl

PRINTED AT THE IMPERIAL PRESS BERLIN

TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE
INTRODUCTION  i
INFERNO  ,  33
PURGATORIO  51
PARADISO  69
PLATES: THE DIAGRAM OF THE INFERNO.
INFERNO I. VIII. IX— X. XII— XIII. XV— XXXIVa.
PURGATORIO I— XXXIV.
PARADISO I— XXXII.

INTRODUCTION

aiiSS
A
MONG those artists of the Italian Renaissance whose pictures make
a lasting impression, even on the hastier and less critical visitors
to European galleries, Botticelli is one of the most attractive. He
does not, indeed, dazzle and entrance by the force and splendour
of his genius, the power and majesty of his conceptions, as do Leo
nardo, Michael Angelo, and Raphael. His charm lies rather in the
sweet and delicate play of fancy, the depths of quaint yet sympa
thetic emotion that make up his artistic personality. When Fra An
gelico leads us through the realms of the blessed, he sheds over his
figures an ineffable brightness, the holy calm proper to souls freed
from the last vestige of earthly trammels; and something of the same
radiant detachment from earthly things animates the creations of Botti
celli. But whereas with Fra Angelico, art gushes from springs of deep
2 INTRODUCTION
religious feeling, with Botticelli it is always the poet who inspires the
painter. This special stamp of individuality is strongly impressed on all
his works. Humanity had lost its grasp on the traditions of antique art, and
had ceased to look Nature frankly in the face. But from Giotto to Leo
nardo, we note a gradual awakening to the truth and power of natural
phenomena; the children of the new day turn, timidly at first, once more
to the great Mother. This unexampled period of revival is marked by
every gift of youth grace, naivete, freshness of sensation, and an elasti
city of creative power which no adverse forces from without could
repress. Botticelli was one of the lights, though in no strict sense one of
the leaders of the Florentine School. To those qualities which make up
the distinctive charm of the quattrocentisti, he added an element all his
own, the fairy glamour of a dream-world, born of his poetic temperament.
Our knowledge of Botticelli's life is confined to a few meagre facts :
his biography, as given by Vasari, is of the scantiest. It is not im
probable that in his later years especially he was one of those self-con
tained beings of whom contemporaries have little to say.
Botticelli, youngest of the five sons of the tanner Mariano di Vanni
Filipepi, was born at Florence in 1446. Sandro is an abbreviation of
Alessandro, and the surname Botticelli — Botticello, literally, the little
cask — was formerly explained as resulting from the artist's apprenticeship
to a certain goldsmith distinguished by this sobriquet. But it appears
that Sandro's eldest brother, a broker, was also called Botticelli by his
friends, and that the name was afterwards transferred to the painter. In
the only specimen of his signature now extant, however, he writes him
self: Sandro di Mariano.
Vasari tells us that the young Mariano was very carefully brought up,
and instructed in the branches of learning usually taught to the boys of his
times. Although he shewed a ready comprehension of things which appealed
to his tastes, he seems to have had little aptitude for the drudgery of
reading, writing, and arithmetic. His father, impatient with the vagaries
of the strange youth, removed him from school, and apprenticed him to
his godfather, a goldsmith of repute. Either Vasari's account of his
youthful idleness was false, or Botticelli must have diligently atoned for
his early shortcomings, for we know him to have been deeply versed in

INTRODUCTION 3
classic literature , and a student of Dante , while his handwriting is almost
that of a professor of learning.
In those days many branches of the fine arts were practised side
by side in the goldsmith's workshop. The workers in precious metals
were actively allied to the painters, and artists such as Pollajuolo wielded
the goldsmith's hammer and plied the brush by turns. The casting of
metals, sculpture, intaglio, and artistic needlework, were carried on in
the same ateliers, and Sandro, who shewed much aptitude in his new
calling, devoted himself more especially to painting and drawing.
Yielding to his son's desire, the tanner accordingly placed the youth
with the Carmelite friar Filippo Lippi, one of the most renowned masters
of the day. But Botticelli's early apprenticeship to the goldsmith was
not without its effect on his work as a painter. His skill in the rend
ering of ornaments and decorative accessories, and his evident delight
in their treatment are no doubt traceable to these early influences, as
may well be also the sharpness and decision of outline that characterize
his drawing. Botticelli probably became Fra Filippo's pupil about 1460. Born
about 1406, and brought up in the Carmelite monastery at Florence,
Filippo's artistic development owed much to the genius of Masaccio.
In emulation of his great prototype, he strove earnestly to breathe into
the hieratic convention of religious painting the new spirit of truth and
beauty. Filippo, in spite of his devout calling, had all the unbridled
fervour of the artistic temperament. His genius was sullied by moral
weaknesses, which it is only fair to judge by the standard of his own times.
In 1452 he quitted Florence for the neighbouring town of Prato, where
he was employed in the frescoes of the cathedral choir. In 1466 he
removed to Spoleto, and settling there, undertook a vast scheme of
decoration in the Duomo, a commission procured for him by his patron
Piero de' Medici. He died at Spoleto in 1469. It was at Prato that
he seduced from her vows the fair Lucretia Buti, a nun of the convent
of which he was chaplain. He afterwards married her, the necessary
dispensation being granted by Pope Pius II. who released both parties from
their religious obligations. Of this union was born Filippino Lippi , the pupil
of Botticelli, an artist hardly less famous than his father and his master.
In Fra Filippo's compositions, which generally contain numerous
figures , a certain artistic equilibrium takes the place of real freedom and

, INTRODUCTION
spontaneous balance in arrangement. Many of his heads and figures
have a curiously flattened appearance, as if pressure from above had
increased their width. On the other hand, he has bequeathed to us
creations of such joyous actuality, grace, and delicacy as the Annunciation
in the National Gallery of London, the Madonna with the Infant Christ
and two Angels in the Uffizi, and the Birth of Christ in the Berlin
Gallery. His angels and Madonnas have a peculiar sweetness and purity
of expression, a delicate proportion of form, a dewy softness of flesh-
tones. In his finest works, the colour is rich, brilliant, and glowing.
Botticelli's apprenticeship to Filippo came to an end, no doubt, before
the latter settled at Spoleto in 1466. At Filippo's death, two years
later, Botticelli was recognized as one of the best painters in Florence,
and as an artist of the highest rank.
Vasari mentions the allegorical figure of Fortitude executed for
the hall of the Mercatanzia in Florence, and now in the Uffizi, as one of
his earliest independent works. Antonio and Piero del Pollajuolo had
painted six other Virtues for the same place. Earlier works are
mentioned, which have not come down to us, notably the portraits
of the leaders of the Pazzi conspiracy, and the murderers of Giuliano
de' Medici (1478), which Botticelli, in accordance with a stern custom
of the day, painted as a memorial of infamy on the walls of the
Palazzo Pubblico. The paintings he executed jointly with Domenico
Ghirlandajo in the Sala della Udienza of the same building have also
perished. None of Botticelli's known works bear either date or signature, and
only in a few instances are we able to assign them with any confidence
to a particular period. We can therefore only approximately trace the
course of his artistic development. Further difficulties beset us from the
fact that Botticelli early surrounded himself with a numerous band of
pupils and assistants. In his bottega, a combination of school and work
shop such as grew up round every popular master of the times, pictures
were executed, for the more important parts of which, such as the heads
and hands, the master was himself responsible, while the rest was left
to his assistants. They were also employed in replicas and copies, or
in the execution of works for which he furnished the designs. All such
works bear the impress, more or less modified, of Botticelli's peculiar
character. But if we wish to enjoy in full measure the charm of his

INTRODUCTION 5
art, we must distinguish between these and works entirely by his own
hand. In some cases, of course, this process of discrimination presents
difficulties. That Botticelli's most striking characteristics, both as draughtsman
and colourist, were fairly pronounced even when he first quitted Fra
Filippo's atelier, the Fortezza already mentioned bears witness. Side
by side with the influence of Lippi, so clearly traceable in his work,
that of the Florentine sculptor and painter Verrocchio is also apparent,
and it has been conjectured that he worked for a time under the latter,
after leaving his first master.
Botticelli is perhaps most readily distinguished from Fra Filippo by
the greater spirituality of expression in his Madonnas and angels. These
have a distinct and very striking individuality, apart from any high
standard of ideal beauty. The facial type is peculiar; the bony sub
structure of the heads is very strongly indicated, the cheek bones are
prominent; the noses have a slight inward curve, and a tendency to
thickness towards the end, the eyelids are heavy and sleepy, the mouths
full and richly curved, the chins firm and strongly marked. His angels
have slightly hollow cheeks, and a delicate, almost suffering expression
of dreamy longing and melancholy. Like his feminine figures, they are
full of a sweet fascination, and their rapt, soulful gaze stamps itself
ineffaceably on the mind of the spectator.
Botticelli had an intimate knowledge of human anatomy, as we see
even in such an early work as the life-size Saint Sebastian in the Ber
lin Gallery. Unlike many of his contemporaries, however, he concerned
himself less with the human form as an object for learned anatomical
demonstration and detail, than as a medium for the expression of char
acter and feeling-. Herein lies the secret of his success as a delineator
of noble and rhythmic movement, and to this tendency we owe no doubt,
much of that peculiarly individual grace which distinguishes his floating
angels and his dancing maidens. The flow of his lines is aided and
enhanced by a free, yet carefully considered cast of draperies, inspired
to some extent by classic models, though modified by personal fancy.
In some cases we find these draperies clinging in close folds about the
limbs, in others fluttering loosely in the breeze.
Throughout his best works , the colour is uniformly bright and high
in tone, yet powerful and full of a soft inward glow. The local tints

6 INTRODUCTION
are very clearly defined, producing a sort of gem -like effect, which is
enhanced by the occasional use of gold leaf, a practice of the early
masters often resorted to by Botticelli. We have already spoken of his
refined treatment of ornamental accessories; he was also fond of intro
ducing garlands of foliage, thickets, and hedges of flowers, or leaves
and branches decoratively treated, by way of background to his subjects.
Leonardo's assertion, that Botticelli was incapable of painting a landscape,
had its justification from the Leonardesque standpoint. Even when he
introduced a landscape background, he treated it as a mere accessory,
and subordinated it entirely to the development of his figures, and their
characterization. Throughout his later period of activity, Botticelli diverged more and
more from the old severe and hieratic conception of the Virgin, the in
fluence of which is very apparent in his early works. Fra Filippo had
indeed, already treated groups of the Madonna with the Holy Child and
the little St. John as purely human scenes of family life. But to this
modern rendering of the sacred theme, Botticelli added an element of
his own, the expression of a deep mystic relation between the Mother
and Child. With the maternal joy of his Madonna is mingled a soft
melancholy, a premonition of the sufferings in store for the Babe. And
this brooding spirit seems to have communicated itself to the Child, who
gazes out upon the world as if lost in nascent thought.
A hitherto unknown form of Madonna picture came into vogue in
the time of Botticelli. This was the circular panel, called by the Italians
a tondo. As it had never been used by the early ecclesiastical pain
ters, there was no recognized type proper to this form of compo
sition, and the artist's creative genius had consequently more scope than
in the treatment of the usual square, upright, or oblong panel. Genre
passages, such as pleased the taste of the day, could be introduced in
the tondi without any violation of tradition. No painter of the Renaissance
made a more consummate use of this new artistic departure than Botti
celli. The most famous of his circular pictures is the Virgin writing the
Magnificat, with attendant angels, in the Uffizi. The circular line which
enframes the composition is echoed by the bending figures of the angels ;
the painter seems to be holding up for our contemplation a magic mirror,
in which we see reflected an apparition from a higher world. Among
the several round pictures closely allied to this Florentine example, we

INTRODUCTION 7
may mention those in the London National Gallery and the Turin
Museum. Botticelli's angels are the creatures of his own poetic fancy, beings
cast in a human mould, of a very individual type, their angelic nature
indicated chiefly by their sexlessness. They might be either youths or
maidens, and this uncertainty is deliberate on the painter's part. It be
tokens no want of capacity for the rendering of distinctive types, for,
as many examples of his art attest, he was a most accomplished por
trait-painter. The male portraits in the Louvre, in the Berlin Museum
and in the Liechtenstein Gallery, and the portrait of a woman, formerly
the property of Dante Rossetti, and now in Mr. Constantine Ionides'
collection, are instinct with truth, vitality, and animation of the highest
order. This side of Botticelli's art is finely displayed in the numerous
figures of his Adoration of the Kings in the Uffizi, a large compo
sition of the most striking originality. Diverging widely from the
conventional treatment of the theme, it is a bold and comprehensive
attempt to connect sacred legend and contemporary history. The
worshipping Magi and their followers are members of the house of
Medici, or of persons closely allied to that house, some among them
still living when the picture was painted, others dead. Close to the
Virgin kneels Cosimo, the Father of his Country (d. 1464); a little
beyond him Giuliano de' Medici, Lorenzo the Magnificent, Filippo
Strozzi, Andrea Poliziano and others, whose types are more or less
easily recognizable from existing coins, medals, and busts. In the
extreme corner to the right stands a man in a long yellow robe,
looking out at the spectator. His face, with its powerful, somewhat
heavy features, and thoughtful expression, is reproduced in the vignette
at the beginning of this volume. It is a portrait of Botticelli, who here
introduces himself in the character of an adherent of the Medici, his
patrons. It was characteristic of the Renaissance spirit to feel no incongruity
in the blending of the sacred and the profane. Botticelli's Adoration of
the Kings is, in fact, a portrait-group of the Medici. Pagan and Christian
symbols are unhesitatingly introduced side by side. Once more, as
in the classic ages, art sought to awaken the religious sentiment of
the spectator, by an appeal to the higher sensuous faculties , and it was
by virtue of his reliance upon this appeal that Botticelli became the

8 INTRODUCTION
choragus of the modern movement. In the Coronation of the Virgin, at
the Florentine Academy, the group of God the Father and the Madonna
is surrounded by a circle of dancing angels, strewing flowers, a joyous
celestial band , marked by the most lively animation and sense of move
ment. Each one of these angels, whose affinity to the Hours and Graces
of antique art the master was at no pains to disguise, shews a distinctive
individuality, both in facial type, and in the freely harmonized colours
of his fluttering draperies. St. Ambrose and St. Jerome, who with the
two other Fathers, stand below, turn an astonished gaze heavenwards.
The conception is more severe in the picture of the Madonna with the
two Saints in the Berlin Gallery. Here the painter, debarred by the
nature of his subject from the freedom and animation proper to him,
has supplied their place by the splendour of the accessories among
which he has placed his figures. A mass of luxuriant vegetation, taste
fully interwoven in a trellis, forms a background for the richly decorated
throne of the Virgin.
Antique art and antique literature were the springs from which the
Italian painters and sculptors of the fifteenth century drew both form
and idea. Antiquity lay, as yet, hidden behind a mysterious veil, lifted
at intervals by the breeze, and affording only glimpses of the great
secrets to be revealed. Artists knew enough to incite them to new
aims, but not enough to paralyze their own inventive gifts, and throw
them off the track of original development. The simplicity and fresh
ness with which they invest antique motives and materials, give the charm
and aroma of a fairy legend to their rendering of classic subjects.
Botticelli determined the treatment of such material throughout the
middle ages to a far greater degree than Mantegna, with his more pro
nounced archaeological tendencies. The few works in this new genre which
have come down to us constitute one of the various titles to fame both
of Botticelli's art and of the Florentine School. Foremost among them
is the large picture in the Academy at Florence, generally known as
"Spring", which, however, is taken from a description in Politian's poem
"Giostra", and is, in fact, an allegory of the realm of Venus. Giuliano
de' Medici, the hero of this epic, is represented as a wanderer in the
Cytherean fields, the goddess herself appearing as the central figure of
the composition. Cupid hovers over the three Graces, shooting fiery
arrows from his bow; Flora, Zephyr, and the Goddess of Spring advance

INTRODUCTION 9
from the opposite side. A luxuriant carpet of flowers and verdure decks
the ground of the orange grove in which the scene is laid.
Another passage of Politian's poem inspired the Birth of Venus
in the Uffizi. Both pictures were originally in Cosimo I.'s Villa, Castello.
Less attractive than these is a kindred work, also in the Uffizi, the so-
called Calumny of Apelles , a subject from Lucian often treated by
artists of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and necessitating a certain
dry didactic treatment which fettered the free play of the artist's fancy,
though individual passages are carefully and sympathetically carried out.
From 1 48 1 to 1483 Botticelli was in Rome, where he painted two
large frescoes on the south wall of the Sistine Chapel. Pope Sixtus IV.
had invited him to decorate the newly completed building, in conjunction
with Ghirlandajo, Signorelli, Cosimo Rosselli and Pinturicchio. One of
Botticelli's frescoes represents the deeds of Moses in the land of Midian ;
the other, according to the latest interpretation, The Sacrifice of Cleans
ing after Leprosy, with the Temptation of Christ in the background. The
modern visitor to the Sistine Chapel is, as a rule, so dazzled by Michael
Angelo's stupendous works in the vault and choir, that he does less
than justice to the compositions of earlier masters. But even when
we consider these separately and with due attention, we cannot but
admit that Botticelli's finest qualities fall short of their highest de
velopment here, in spite of many passages of great beauty. The
vast scale in which he was compelled to work, the nature of the subject,
and the obligation laid upon him to bring together a number of distinct
episodes within the space of a single composition, were alike uncongenial
to the peculiar bent of his genius. Filippino Lippi, the son of Fra
Filippo, worked as his assistant on the Temptation of Christ.
Of Botticelli's other works in fresco, few have survived, but these
sufficiently prove that when working with a free hand on suitable material,
he was no less original and effective in this genre than as a painter of
easel pictures. We may instance the little wall painting of St. Jerome in
his study, in the Ognissanti at Florence, and the fragments of frescoes
from the Villa Lemmi, near Florence, representing Lorenzo Tornabuoni
introduced into the circle of the arts and sciences, and his wife Giovanna
receiving gifts from Venus and the Graces. These fragments, now in
the Louvre, suffice at least to shew that the frescoes must have been
among the most brilliant creations of the artist's fancy.

to INTRODUCTION
From 1480 to about 1494 was perhaps the most prolific period of
Botticelli's activity. He was then the head of a large atelier in Florence,
where innumerable bottega pictures and replicas of his works were pro
duced. To this period also, in all probability, must be referred his
close study of Dante, and the execution of the greater part of the
drawings illustrating the Divine Comedy. Before dealing with these,
however, we propose to complete our sketch of the artist's career.
As far as it is possible to judge from the somewhat scanty historical
details now extant, Botticelli's life seems to have been singularly calm
and equable. The large following of pupils and assistants he is known
to have had, and the landed property he owned in Florence, point to
the conclusion that he was in easy circumstances. Nor did he lack his
due meed of credit and consideration among his fellow-citizens. He
belonged to that band of artists, poets, and men of letters whom the
Medici, then the virtual kings and rulers of Florence, had attracted to
their court. In 1491, when it was determined to build a new facade to
the Duomo, the most distinguished artists in Italy were invited to judge
of the plans, and among them we find Botticelli.
The advent of Savonarola made a deep impression on him , which
manifests itself in all his later works. The Ferrarese monk, who
believed himself especially called to wage a divinely ordained war
upon the vices of the age, and the crimes of the church, came to the
Florentine Convent of San Marco in 1482. It was not, however, until
1490 that Savonarola's extraordinary influence over the popular mind
fully manifested itself. His Lenten sermons attracted thousands. When
his reiterated prophecies of the impending downfall of the Medici were
apparently fulfilled by the entry of Charles VIII. into Florence, and the
deposition of the shifty Piero de' Medici, the Florentines hailed him as
a God- appointed seer. Savonarola became a sort of theocratic sovereign
of the city. So great was the number of his would-be disciples that
the convent of San Marco had to be enlarged. His dream was to send
forth from Florence a voice that should recall the world to virtue and
the fear of God. He preached against luxury and self-indulgence, en
joining an immediate return to simplicity and chastity as the sole means
of salvation. Novel autos-da-fe were inaugurated, and the converted
Florentines hastened to the burning piles to cast into the flames magni
ficent apparel, costly plate, worldly books, playing cards, and all such

INTRODUCTION II
pictures as were supposed to appeal to the sensual instincts. Many a
priceless masterpiece was no doubt sacrificed to the blind fanaticism of
the moment. Savonarola was by no means hostile to art; but he in
sisted that it should find only such expression as tended to the puri
fication and religious advancement of mankind.
Fra Angelico's frescoes in San Marco were to him as heavenly
melodies. He desired to see the spirit of devotion breathing forth from
the painter's creations; no profane thought was to find utterance in such
works; the very features of saints and angels were to be drawn from
the artist's spiritual vision, not suggested by persons with whom they
were familiar, far less deliberately reproduced, so as to be in fact con
temporary portraits. No longer was it to be possible for the Florentines
to say, as they had been in the habit of doing: Behold a Magdalen, or:
Such an one might be the Blessed Mother herself! The dress and ac
cessories of the Virgin were to be as plain and simple as possible. Pic
tures, he contended, should not be a source of material enjoyment, a
mere satisfaction of the eye. He urged repeatedly upon his hearers a
maxim often formulated by mediaeval asceticism — that the sole function
of pictures in churches was to bring home the truths of salvation to the.
minds of the ignorant and unlearned.
Savonarola's influence threatened for a time to curb and restrain
even the fully developed artistic life of Florence. Material interests and
the new-born spirit of delight in life at last combined in energetic
resistance to his onslaught.
Foremost among his opponents was the Guild of brocade-weavers.
The warring factions were distinguished by nick- names, the adherents
of the new prophet being called the Piangioni (The Weepers), his enemies
the Arrabiati (The Infuriated). These events were not without their
influence upon Botticelli. From the character of his art we divine in
him a naturally sensitive, somewhat enthusiastic disposition, tempered by a
strain of gentle melancholy, and a leaning towards mysticism which
his absorbing study of Dante may well have fostered. Botticelli became
an adherent of Savonarola's, and after his conversion by the inspired
monk, he seems to have looked upon the earlier manifestations of his
genius as culpable lapses, and never to have returned to the full and
unfettered play of his natural fancy. We know not whether Savona
rola's excommunication by the Pope, and his tragic death at the stake

12 INTRODUCTION
(May 23rd, 1498) tended to alienate the convert from his teacher. The
few pictures painted at this period betray the sorrowful preoccupations
of the master, not only in the choice of subject, but in the noticeable
"degradation" of tone and tints, to be observed, for instance, in the
Entombment of the Munich Pinacothek, and the smaller version of the
same theme in the Poldi Pezzoli collection at Milan. A like sense of
melancholy, though here of a more poetic and less sombre cast, per
vades the Nativity of the London National Gallery. The picture bears
the date 1500, and a long Greek inscription on the upper edge refers
to the prophecies of the Apocalypse, and recognizes their partial fulfil
ment in recent calamities in Italy. The new-born Saviour lies in the
centre, the Virgin kneeling in adoration. Pilgrims arriving on the scene
are greeted by angels, who embrace them with an energetic display
of passionate emotion, while above, other angels, singing and dancing
in ecstacy, float heavenward bearing the glad tidings. The spectators
of the scene wear a calm and peaceful expression as of satisfied yearning:
the reconciliation between God and man is complete/
This is the latest work by Botticelli known to us. In 1503, he,
and several other veterans gave judgment as to the most suitable site
for Michael Angelo's David. After this, we find no further details of
his life, beyond the general statement that his last years were spent in
suffering and solitude, from which death released him on May 17th, 15 10.
The family vault of the Filipepi in the Ognissanti at Florence enshrines
the dust of that master who first among the moderns gave back to art
the vanished delight of the antique world in the rendering of human
grace and loveliness.

INTRODUCTION 13

c

'ertain portions of the Divine Comedy were well-known throughout
Italy in Dante's life-time, and after his death (1321), the whole poem
was repeatedly copied, and widely circulated. Manuscripts for rich
amateurs were generally written on parchment by skilled calligraphists,
the initial letters of cantos and divisions being, as was usual in mediaeval
codices, illuminated in gold and colours. In many instances, an orna
mentation springing from the initial, extended over the whole page.
Within the opening letter of the poem, it was customary to enclose a
portrait of Dante, writing, in which the artist made a more or less
successful attempt at likeness, or a group of Dante and Virgil, or a
miniature presentment of some familiar episode. In the more costly
manuscripts, illuminations occupying half, or sometimes the whole of a
page were introduced, on which the painter bestowed his utmost care
and skill in the delineation of some characteristic scene from the canto
before him.
Occasionally, calligraphy and illumination were the work of one
hand; but a special class of painters, the miniaturists, who devoted them
selves exclusively to the illumination of manuscripts, were generally em
ployed on these decorations. The artistic value of their work is, as a
rule, very slight. Dante introduces one of the masters of this craft,
Oderisi of Gubbio, in the eleventh canto of the Purgatory (V. 79 et seq.).
Recognizing the painter, he thus addresses him:
"Art thou not Oderisi? art not thou
Agobbio's glory, glory of that art
Which they of Paris call the limner's skill?"
Even after the introduction of printing in Italy, manuscript copies of
the Divine Comedy continued to be produced, though the new art deve
loped rapidly during the last years of the fifteenth century. Between
1472, when Dante's poem was printed for the first time, and 1500, some
eighteen editions of the Divine Comedy were published in Italy. But
printed books were at first looked upon as mere cheap substitutes for
manuscripts. Wealthy collectors despised them, as they loved to see
their favourite authors in a costly dress. A contemporary biographer of

I4 INTRODUCTION
Duke Federigo of Urbino writes as follows: "Every book in the ducal
library is of faultless beauty, written by hand on parchment, and adorned
with miniatures. There is not a single printed book in the collection.
The Duke would have been ashamed to own any such". Nevertheless
transcribers and illuminators found it hard to hold their own against the
printers. By the elaborate ornamentation of their texts they endeavoured
to secure to themselves a field in which they were safe from the com
petition of the latter. This explains the production of so many of the
most magnificent Italian manuscripts in the last years of the fifteenth
century, at a time when the ultimate victory of printer over scribe was
already assured.
The written edition of the Divine Comedy illustrated by Botticelli's
drawings was evidently designed on the plan of those costly manuscripts
usually decorated by the miniaturists. But rising immeasurably above
all kindred works, it became one of the most significant artistic ren
derings ever given to poetry, and not the least among the many marvels
of the Italian Renaissance.
In a series of notes upon Florentine artists "from Cimabue to Michel
angelo" collected by some unknown writer of the sixteenth century, we
find the following reference to Botticelli: "he painted and illustrated a
Dante on parchment for Lorenzo di Pier Francesco de' Medici, which
was accounted a most marvellous work" ("Dipinse et storio un Dante
incartapecora alorenzo di piero francesco de' Medici il che fu cosa mara-
vigliosa tenuto". See MS. in the National Library at Florence. Cf.
also Vasari (Milanesi) III, p. 3 17, note f). The Lorenzo here mentioned
was a son of Pier Francesco de' Medici, born about 1456. He played
no prominent part in the affairs of his day, but he seems to have been
a lover of the arts , for we know that Michelangelo received a commission
from him for a statue of a youthful John the Baptist. He died in 1503.
Of Botticelli's preoccupation with the works of Dante we glean
something from Vasari, who tells us, that after completing his frescoes
in the Sistine Chapel, the artist returned in all haste to Florence, where
"his speculative mind found a congenial task in annotating a portion of
Dante; -he also illustrated the Inferno, and caused it to be printed. In
these pursuits much time was spent, and as he neglected his work for
them, many complications arose in his affairs". This, though in itself
somewhat perplexing, is explained and confirmed as to the main fact

INTRODUCTION 15
by our later and more complete knowledge, and by the note of the
anonymous Florentine above mentioned. That Botticelli wrote a com
mentary on any part of Dante's poem is hardly credible , but this state
ment seems to have been an error arising out of the painter's absorbing
interest in the poet's works.
The Dante illustrated by Botticelli for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco dis
appeared and was entirely forgotten until the present century. The first
to call attention to it in modern times was G. F Waagen. He saw the
volume with the drawings in the Duke of Hamilton's collection at Hamilton
Palace , and recognized the work as that of Botticelli , though he was of
opinion that a few of the illustrations might have been by some other
artist. He called to mind the passage we have quoted from Vasari,
and unhesitatingly pronounced the drawings the finest ever executed in
illustration of the Divine Comedy (Treasures of Art, III, p. 307). But
it was not until the volume passed into the Berlin Museum in 1882,
with other manuscripts from the Hamilton Collection, that the drawings
became widely known, or that Botticelli was finally recognized as their
sole author. The series consists of eighty-eight sheets of parchment,
eighty-five of which are illustrated. They average about 1 2 inches in
height by 14 in width, and were bound together in boards, apparently
in the eighteenth century, when the book was also furnished with an
index by one Claudio Molini, an Italian bookseller in Paris. From this
we find that the number of drawings has been preserved intact since
his time. Soon after the acquisition of the volume by the Berlin Museum, it
was discovered that there were eight drawings belonging to the same
series in the Vatican Library, on seven sheets of parchment. These sheets,
bound together in a thin volume, originally belonged to Queen Christina
of Sweden, who died at Rome in 1689, when her library, or the prin
cipal part of it, was bought by Pope Alexander VIII. and incorporated
with that of the Vatican. When these eight drawings were separated
from the rest is not known. Colomb de Batines mentions them ' in his
Bibliografia Dantesca (Prato, 1856, II, p. 174, no. 331). He was struck
by their remarkable drawing and rich composition, but expresses no
opinion as to their authorship. The Vatican drawings are: the intro
ductory plan or chart of Hell , the illustration to Canto I (these are drawn
on either side of the same sheet); and the illustrations to Cantos IX,

16 INTRODUCTION
X, XII, XIII, XV and XVI of the Inferno; the drawing for Canto VIII
is at Berlin. From Canto XVII of the Inferno to Canto XXX of the
Paradiso the Berlin drawings continue in an unbroken series. The page
on which the illustration to Canto XXXI should have appeared, is blank,
and the series closes with the unfinished drawing for Canto XXXII.
The sheets on which the drawings are made, are of fine goat
skin parchment averaging \21j2 inches high by i8x/2 wide. On the
smooth, or so-called "fleshy side" are the drawings, on the rough or
"hairy side" of each sheet, a canto of the poem, divided into six
columns, and written in a character known in Italy as "Alia Antica".
The original arrangement of the sheets was such that the text to
each illustration faced it, so that the reader, on opening the book, had
both drawing and poem before him. The text was written before
the artist began his draw-
Ccrnieadfcaldarfar^wr^t^f>4 acedia- ingSi but the ]arge initials
D4capalpi^cli'(H>tar»-zetnacoLati: are omitted, a space being
£ cncn^mmer^tomlM. left for these at the be"
k O ginning of each canto. We
^t^oadfr^aroaalfi^rfo giye a specimen of the calli.
NcdacoLtucbtmaluolcnticrucg4>ia graphy (from Inferno XXX,
C omeddfcun trvmaua fpcffoilmortb. V. 74-81). All the drawings are
DellungbtefcumfeperUp'tantabbu , . , , • v, , .,
O ™ 0 sketched in with a soft silver-
Dclpi^to^rcfoervwbapiufoccorib-' point, probably composed of
an alloy of silver and lead,
and finished with the pen in black or brown ink; the lightly touched
outlines are shaded here and there where modelling is to be suggested.
Two of the Vatican sheets, the plan of Hell, and the drawing for In
ferno XV, and one of the Berlin drawings, that belonging to Inferno
XVIII, are gaily painted in body-colour; in a third Vatican illustration,
that of Inferno X, only the dresses of some of the figures are coloured.
Not only does the general character of these drawings at once sug
gest Botticelli, but a careful study of their details confirms the belief that
they were entirely executed by him. We recognize throughout the spe
cific character of his art as manifested in his best pictures, the peculiar
sense of movement, the type of head, the somewhat melancholy and
suffering expression of the features, the full lips, the slight inward curve

INTRODUCTION 17
of the nose, and the rich folds of floating draperies. In the drawing to
the twenty-eighth canto of the Paradiso, representing the nine angelic
circles, the angels in the lowest circle hold small tablets in their hands.
On one of these is inscribed in minute but perfectly legible characters:
Sandro di Mariano. It is probable that Botticelli did not intend this
actually as a signature, for the tiny letters might easily be overlooked;
the inscription perhaps only expressed the master's pious wish
that his name might not be forgotten in the beatific circle. (5lwiv
The character and the ink used for the inscription are identical ]J^\°\
with those of the quotations under several of the drawings,
obviously written by the artist himself. We give an enlarged reproduction
of the cartellino.
Are these drawings finished compositions or mere sketches? This
question cannot fail to suggest itself to the student. Many manuscripts
of the fifteenth century and of an earlier date, among them some of
the Divine Comedy itself, are illustrated with outline drawings. It is
quite possible therefore , that Botticelli may have contemplated this style
of treatment. On the other hand, the illuminated drawings in the In
ferno shew that it was at first proposed to colour the illustrations, and
that the attempt was made, perhaps at the wish of the patron. It was
then, no doubt, decided that colouring was unsuitable, and the idea was
abandoned. The master's final intention was, probably, to give his
drawings their present character, that of a cycle of artistic sketches.
A further question has been raised as to whether Botticelli himself
coloured the sheets, or whether this was done by some professional illu
minator. The works of the Italian miniaturists of that period are distin
guished by great delicacy of execution and brilliance of tone. But in
the Dante drawings the colour is dull and sombre, the general effect un
pleasant and wanting in harmony. These very defects point to the con
clusion, that Botticelli himself laid on the colours. Unversed in the
technique of painting upon parchment,, he was unable to obtain a satis
factory result with his materials. A practised miniaturist would have
handled them differently, and no doubt more successfully.
Each canto is illustrated by a single drawing, with the exception of
Canto XXXIV of the Inferno, where two drawings are devoted to the
presentment of the gigantic Lucifer, the first a half, the second a full-
length figure, extending over two opposite pages. 3

18 INTRODUCTION
Throughout the Inferno and Purgatorio, almost every pictorial mo
tive in the narrative is treated by the artist. In his illustrations of the
text, he does not confine himself to the incidents of a single canto, but
occasionally introduces episodes from the close of the preceding, or the
beginning of the following section. When several scenes are depicted
in one drawing, they appear side by side without any definite limitation
of the action, and hence we find the figures of Dante and Virgil, or
those of the poet's later guides or companions appearing twice, or
occasionally several times in a single illustration. This method of com
position, in accordance with which the events of successive periods were
depicted within the limits of a single pictorial plane, the various groups
distinct one from another, but each naively repeating the chief figures in
the drama, was universal in early art, and Botticelli adopted it in his
frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, as well as in the Dante drawings. The
modern principle of unity of action within the limits of a single compo
sition gained ground but slowly in the fifteenth century. Nevertheless,
the numerous figures introduced in the illustrations to the Inferno and
Purgatorio are clearly differentiated. The movements and, in many cases,
the complicated attitudes of the nude forms are firmly rendered , and the
artist shews a complete grasp of physiognomy, and of individual character
as expressed in physical structure.
In the Inferno and Purgatorio the compositions contain a great
variety of small figures, whereas in the Paradiso the scale is larger, and
in many of the drawings, Dante and Beatrice appear alone.
It is interesting to note how Botticelli, in spite of the freedom with
which he approached his task, occasionally retains the types laid down
by former illustrators. Our two reproductions, one an outline drawing
of the griffin in the Purgatorio, from a manuscript of the second half of
the fourteenth century*, the other the fettered giants of the Inferno from
a somewhat later codex, may serve to illustrate this connection between
the artist and his predecessors.

* This Dante manuscript is in the library of the Christianeum at Altona. It contains
a series of pen-drawings of considerable artistic value; those illustrating the Inferno and
the first twenty-eight cantos of the Purgatorio are somewhat coarsely coloured ' The
delicate outline drawings of Cantos XXIX to XXXI have been left untouched by the
illuminator, as shewn in our reproduction. The series ends abruptly at Canto XXXI of
the Purgatorio.

INTRODUCTION

19

In all probability, Botticelli's designs were produced in the order
suggested by the poem. It is evident that the artist gradually attained
to a freer and grander conception of his author, and that some episodes
appealed to him more than others.
In several of the drawings, the outline of the silver-point has been
carefully gone over with the pen in black or brown Indian ink, a notable
instance of such treatment being the illustration to Canto X of the Pur
gatorio, introducing the "Justice of Trajan". Sometimes the first sketch
is only gone over in parts, sometimes it is left untouched, and occasionally

Illustration to Canto XXIX of the Purgatorio. From a Dante Manuscript of the XIV. century at Altona.

Botticelli does not get beyond the preliminaries of a composition. In
the illustration to Canto XXXII of the Purgatory, the work advanced no
farther than the conception of the three little figures standing by the
mystic rose of Paradise, and the illustrations for the two last cantos of
the poem were never even begun.
Botticelli is the first, and perhaps the only artist whose pictorial
conception of the Divine Comedy does not fall short of the poetical
significance. The images of the poet's fancy differed no doubt widely
from those by which the artist rendered them, for in every line his work
reflects the spirit of the fifteenth century. But Dante's poem has this
in common with the Bible, that it lends itself to the forms of expression
3*

20 INTRODUCTION
of every style and period. The very slightness of outline and delicacy
of execution adopted by Botticelli enabled him at once to direct the
imagination of the spectator and to allow it free play.
The perceptible deepening of spiritual intensity in the compositions
as they follow the narrative seems to indicate that they were not all
executed at once , but that in spite of the sketchy character of individual
drawings Botticelli lingered over them for a considerable time. The
passage before quoted from Vasari strengthens this assumption. xA.n un
mistakable artistic evolution is accomplished during the progress of the
work. We do not know how long a time he spent on them, but it is
very possible that these illustrations, undertaken at first perhaps as a
relaxation from more arduous labours, gradually enthralled him to such
an extent, that his other work was neglected. Such, in fact, may be
the meaning of Vasari's statement.
It is very probable that Botticelli began the Dante drawings be
fore he went to Rome in 1481. Vasari says that "he illustrated the
Inferno, and caused it to be printed". Now we do possess an edition
of the Divine Comedy, printed in Florence in 1481, in which the Inferno
is illustrated with nineteen little engravings. The affinity between these
plates and Botticelli's drawings is unmistakable. This edition, published
under the direction of Cristophoro Landino , and furnished with his com
mentary on the poem*, it was originally proposed to illustrate with en
gravings throughout. The plates were to appear as vignettes at the
beginning of every canto, although, as a fact, they are only introduced
in the first nineteen cantos of the Inferno. Canto III was provided with
two vignettes, so that the number of the designs amounts in all to twenty.
Throughout the rest of the poem, spaces were left at the head of each
canto for the proposed plates**. The engraver has been supposed, on
* As is the case in the majority of the printed works of this period, there is no
actual title. Page 1 begins thus: Comento di Christophoro Landino Fiorentino Sopra
La Comedia di Dante Alighieri Poeta Fiorentino. The printer's address comes at the
end: Impresso in Firenze Per Nicholo di Lorenzo Della Magna A. Di. XXX. Dagosto
MD. CCCC. LXXXI. Nicolo della Magna (dell' Allemagna) is the Italianized name of a
printer from Breslau, Nikolaus Lorenz.
** Only a few copies of the Dante of 1481, however, contain the plates to all the
nineteen cantos. In the greater number, only the first and second cantos are illustrated;
other copies are entirely without illustrations, this being the case even in the fine present
ation copy on vellum given by Landino to the Signoria of Florence, and now preserved
in the National Library of that city.

INTRODUCTION

21

the authority of a passage in Vasari, to have been the Florentine gold
smith, Baccio Baldini, but there is no reliable ground for this attribution,
and the true author is unknown. The technique is that of an unprac
tised hand, and has nothing to distinguish it from the average work of
contemporary Florentine engravers. In spite, however, of their slight
artistic merit, the plates have a special interest in their connection, with
Botticelli. Botticelli's drawings for eight of the first nineteen cantos of the
Inferno are missing, whereas for the remaining eleven we have not only
his drawings, but the prints of the Florentine edition of 148 1. A com-

(railitifoiniaiiwiuTnan^wcffi
vniofrx^fomi^mmmpMm

Illustration to Canto XXXI of the Inferno. From a Dante Manuscript of the XIV. century in the British Museum.

parison of the prints with the drawings shews that the engraver was
intimately acquainted with Botticelli's compositions, and must have made
use of them for his own work. He did not, actually copy them, but
he borrowed the chief features of the arrangement and grouping. These
he crowded together in the narrow space at his command, occasionally
adding some feeble invention of his own, and so piecing out his illus
trations more or less successfully. In judging of these and kindred
prints we must bear in mind that their primary aim was utilitarian rather
than aesthetic or artistic; they were intended mainly to point out the
contents of each canto, and impress it upon the reader's memory, a
purpose they actually fulfilled far better than a verbal table of contents,
and this explains why so many fine editions of Dante published in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are furnished with these small, and from

22 INTRODUCTION
the artistic point of view, insignificant vignettes. On closer examination of
such a series as that in the Venetian edition of 149 1, we see what an excellent
guide they are to the reader. We give a reproduction of one of these vi
gnettes. The letters D. and V. above the figures signify Dante and Virgil.
The prints in the Florentine edition, however, have a double interest
for us. In the first place, we may gather from them some general idea
of the nine missing Botticelli drawings (Inferno II to VII, IX, XI, and
XIV). The date of publication of the volume further makes it evident
that Botticelli must have begun to work on the Dante before 1 48 1 . His
journey to Rome in the summer of 1 48 1 , and the execution of the Vatican
frescoes, no doubt caused him to lay aside the drawings for a time.
Very probably he had only completed the illustration of the first nineteen
cantos when he left Florence. The engraver was therefore unable to
proceed with his work; but the printer, having already completed the
text, brought out the volume in August 1481, while Botticelli was in
Rome, without waiting for the rest of the drawings. The edition there
fore appeared in the incomplete state with which we are familiar.
After his return to Florence, Botticelli again set to work upon the
Dante designs. The time he spent on them and perhaps also his ab
sorption in the text, may have caused a certain neglect of more remun
erative work. This, and perhaps also differences with the printer or
editor he had disappointed, may have given rise to those complications
in his affairs alluded to by Vasari. The latter was not alone in his
ignorance of the Dante drawings executed for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco ;
it seems to have been shared by the artist's contemporaries generally.
Strange to say, the work remained entirely unnoticed until our own day.
The woodcuts in the edition of Dante, published at Brescia in 1487 and
those in two others which appeared at Venice in 1 49 1 , shew, indeed , a
certain affinity with Botticelli's drawings, being obviously free copies of
the plates in the Florentine edition of 1 48 1 . The process by which this
adaptation was accomplished may be readily traced , if we compare the
vignette , from the Venetian volume , reproduced above , with our further
reproduction of the plate illustrating the canto of the Inferno in the
Florentine edition. From the nineteenth canto, where the Florentine
plates come to an end, all resemblance to Botticelli's drawings disappears
from the woodcuts, a proof that the draughtsman of the latter had access
to the engravings, but not to the original drawings.

INTRODUCTION

23

We must pass on to the sixteenth century, to find an artist who
was undoubtedly inspired by Botticelli's actual handiwork, and not by the
Florentine engravings. The Roman painter, Federigo Zucchero , illustrated
the Divine Comedy in a series of large drawings , carried out partly with
the pen, partly in red and black chalk. Eighty- eight of these are now
in the Uffizi collection. Zucchero's autograph inscriptions on the sheets
shew them to have been executed at the Escurial about 1586- 1587,
during his first visit to Spain.
In several of these there is such a close resemblance, both in the
backgrounds and the arrangement of the figures, to the corresponding
designs by Botticelli, that the
connection can hardly be a merely itgs^r^^rL-^ _y >^a ^ ^j^a^n
fortuitous one. Zucchero either
made his drawings under the im
mediate influence of Botticelli's
originals, or was inspired by
studies from them. His indebted
ness to Botticelli is obvious, for
instance, in the illustrations of
Purgatorio XIII and XIV, notably
in the figure of the old man, and
various other details. Even in
the treatment, he occasionally
caught something of Botticelli's
handling, especially in the de
lineation of the gigantic Satan,
where he has closely followed the Botticellian conception. Where
Zucchero became acquainted with Botticelli's work, whether in Spain
or Italy, remains as obscure a question as the general history of our
Codex. The far-reaching influence of Dante throughout the period of the
Renaissance manifests itself under the most varied forms, both in art and
literature. The oft repeated attempt to give visible form to his creations
illustrates but a single phase of his power over the minds of men. Many
of the draughtsmen who were fascinated by the theme were unequal to
the task they undertook, as was the case with Zucchero. The only work
of the kind which would have formed a worthy pendant to that of Botti-

Vignette to Canto VIII of the Inferno.
From a Venetian edition of Dante published in i4or.

24 INTRODUCTION
celli is lost to us for ever. Michelangelo is known to have illustrated
the entire poem with pen drawings made on the wide margins of a
printed edition. The precious volume became the property of one An
tonio Montauti, a Florentine sculptor (died 1740), who, removing to
Rome for the execution of certain works, sent his household goods
thither by sea, Michelangelo's Dante among them. The ship containing
the priceless treasure was wrecked off Civitavecchia. A happier fate
has guarded Botticelli's work for us throughout the changes of four
centuries.

INFERNO

THE DIAGRAM OF THE INFERNO. This drawing, which is elabo
rately coloured in the original, forms a kind of an introductory and expla
natory chart for the Inferno illustrations. It covers the front page of the
sheet of parchment, on the reverse of which is the drawing for Canto I.
According to Dante's conception, Hell is a funnel-shaped structure,
extending from the upper surface of the earth to its central point. The
funnel or cone is enclosed at the top by a vault, on which stands the
city of Jerusalem, and consists of a vestibule, and nine circles, the suc
cessive circles of course narrowing as they approach the lower end of
the cone. Each of the last three circles is divided into several sub-
circles ; making in all twenty-four compartments. Sinners expiate their
offences in different circles, according to their degrees of guilt ; the greater
the criminal, the lower the place of his imprisonment. The illustration
gives a vertical section of the cone, and the various circles have the
appearance of superposed horizontal strata. In these are numerous groups
of small figures, arranged for the most part as in the illustrations to the
Inferno. The execution of detail is careful, but the artist was evidently
more concerned to give a comprehensible plan of the infernal regions,
than to express an artistic conception. The last circle becomes so small,
owing to the narrowing of the cone, that a distinct portrayal of its
scenes was impossible, and it is therefore reproduced on a larger scale
at the bottom of the sheet in a sort of supplementary design.
The rocks of which the structure is composed are painted in brown
and yellow tones, against which the little figures are relieved in light
and varied tints. The drawing is enclosed in a border of pale gold-
leaf. The colours may never have taken kindly to the uneven surface
of the parchment. They have scaled off in many places, and the whole
surface has been further injured by rubbing. 4*

28

INFERNO

I

Dante has lost his way in a gloomy forest. Emerging from the
thicket, he finds himself at the foot of a hill, the summit of which is
touched by the rays of the rising sun. He attempts to ascend, but is
driven back, first by a spotted panther, then by a lion and a she-wolf.
He turns to re-enter the forest, but the poet Virgil appears, and offers
to be his guide.

ENGRAVING OF 1 481* The composition of the plate agrees with
that of the drawing in arrangement, and in many of the details; the
positions of Dante and Virgil are almost identical in the two, saving
that Dante's figure appears five times in the drawing, and only three
times in the print.

II
ENGRAVING OF 1481. Dante shews signs of wavering in his re
solve to follow Virgil. Virgil encourages him, and declares himself sent
by Beatrice to be his guide. The two poets stand on a "dark coast"
(V. 40). The entrance to Hell, with the first words of the inscription
over the portal "Per me" are shewn in the print, though these are first

* We give this title to the plates in the Florentine Edition of Dante, published in
148 1. (See p. 20.) The reproductions given here are slightly reduced facsimiles of the
originals.

INFERNO

29

introduced in the following canto of the poem. Above, in a glory, is
a female figure, to which Virgil points, while Dante gazes upward. The

figure doubtless represents Beatrice, and is an addition of the artist's,
for Beatrice is only mentioned in the poem, and does not appear.

Ill

ENGRAVING OF 1 48 1. Dante and Virgil at the Gate of Hell.
The first words of the three opening lines of the inscription: "Per
" are legible above the entrance.

me

3°

INFERNO

The two poets enter the Vestibule of the "Neutrals", the dark
abode of naked, wailing spirits, who lived on earth "without or praise
or blame". The long procession follows a banner, borne by a devil,
of whom there is no mention in the text.
The poets come to the banks of Acheron. Charon approaches in
a boat to convey the souls of the damned across the river. The poem
describes him as an old man; in the print he is represented as a devil.
Virgil converses with Charon. A deafening storm arises, by which
Dante is stunned. He falls to the ground, as if overtaken by sudden
sleep. His prostrate form appears in the extreme corner of the print to
the right.
THE SECOND ENGRAVING TO THE THIRD CANTO OF THE IN
FERNO is a reversed replica of all the main features of the first print,
much weaker, however, in every respect. The incident of the souls of
the damned swimming in the Styx, and trying to lay hold of Charon's
boat, is an interpolation, for which there is no authority in the text.

This print appears in a few copies of the Florentine edition of the Com
media published in 1 48 1, and is generally placed at the foot of the
opening page of the first chapter, the original forming the head-piece
above. The drawing and general treatment of the replica shew it to
have been executed by a hand inferior to that which produced the re
maining illustrations.

INFERNO

IV

31

ENGRAVING OF 148 1. This illustration, condensed and pregnant
to a fault, touches very slightly on the main incidents of the canto, so
far as its earlier verses are concerned.

Roused from his swoon by a clap of thunder, Dante finds himself on
the edge of a precipice, descending which with Virgil, he enters the
first circle of Hell. They leave behind them a great multitude , the souls
of those who lived blamelessly, but died unbaptized, and advance towards
a flame, by the light of which they discern four mighty shades, Homer,
armed with a sword, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan. In company with these
they pass on to the beacon -light, and come to a fortress, encircled by
seven walls, and a pleasant stream. They enter, through seven suc
cessive gates. On a green lawn in the centre of the fortress they dis
cover the shades of many illustrious men and women of antiquity.
Aristotle sits enthroned among his scholars. (Dante and Virgil quit the
fortress.)

V
ENGRAVING OF 1 48 1. In the second circle of Hell, Dante and
Virgil behold Minos, judging the souls of the departed. As they confess
their sins, Minos indicates the number of the circle to which they are
condemned by coiling his tail round his body a corresponding number
of times, then hurls them downward to their appointed places. Minos

32

INFERNO

addresses a warning to Dante, and is informed by Virgil of his special
mission. As they advance, they hear the roaring of a tempest, and see
the souls of carnal sinners, driven onward by a furious wind. Dante

notices a couple who float through the air pressing closely one against
the other. (Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta. He addresses
them. Francesca relates her story.)

vr

INFERNO

33

ENGRA VING OF 1481. Dante and Virgil in the third circle. Heavy
showers of rain, snow, and hail fall on the souls of the gluttonous, who
do penance here; they lie naked on the ground, the three -headed dog,
Cerberus, tearing their flesh, and rending them limb from limb. Virgil
quiets the monster by throwing handfuls of earth into his maw, as he
gapes at the advancing travellers. The poets pass over the prostrate
shades. Dante converses with the Florentine Ciacco. (Dante and Virgil
continue their descent.)

VII

ENGRAVING OF 1 48 1. The two poets encounter Pluto. Virgil
speaks to him of the Archangel Michael, upon which the fiendish monster
falls to the ground,
"As sails, full spread and bellying with the wind
Drop suddenly collapsed, if the mast split." (V. 13-14.)
• Dante and Virgil enter the fourth circle, where the prodigal and
the avaricious are condemned to roll great weights against each other,
breast to breast. They rush forward in two opposing ranks, and after
the encounter, turn round, and begin their onslaught afresh. Among
them are many ecclesiastics, distinguishable by their tonsured heads.
The second part of the canto , which sets forth the sufferings of the
wrathful and morose in a loathsome slough, is unnoticed in this illustra
tion, but is represented in that of the following canto. 5

34

INFERNO

VIII

Passing along the banks of the muddy pool in which the wrathful
are immersed, the poets come to a tower. (Cf. the close of the pre
ceding canto.) As they approach, two signal -lights flame out from its
summit, which are answered by a corresponding flame in the distance.
Diverging slightly from the text, Botticelli has made the answering beacon
also a double flame. Phlegyas hastily approaches in his skiff, and at the
command of Virgil, rows the two poets over the Stygian marsh. The
Florentine Filippo Argenti, emerging from the waters, catches at the
boat with both hands. Dante and Virgil repulse him. Fetching a wide
circuit, they come at last to the walls and gates of the fiery city of Dis.
A host of demons rush out to meet them, and prevent their entrance,
more especially that of the still living Dante. Virgil parleys with
them in vain. He comforts his despairing companion by promises of
speedy help.

In the illustration, Botticelli recurs to the preceding canto on the
one hand, and on the other, inserts various details from that which
follows. In the background to the right, Dante and Virgil are seen as
cending from the fourth abyss; to the left, they arrive at the base of the
tower in Phlegyas' boat. The souls of the wrathful appear in the waters
of the lake. The arrival at the gates of Dis, and Virgil's parley with the
devils, is depicted to the left. Within the walls of the city are shewn the
fiery graves of the heretics, described in the ninth canto.

INFERNO

35

ENGRAVING OF 1 481. The print agrees with the drawing as re
gards the episodes of the passage across the Styx, the meeting with
Argenti, and the arrival of the poets at the walls of the flaming city.

IX
As Dante and Virgil converse at the fiery gateway of Dis , the
three Furies, Megsera, Alecto, and Tisiphone appear above the portal
girdled with serpents, their heads crowned with asps and adders in place
of hair. They scream at the wanderers, and invoke the aid of the
Gorgon, to save Dante from the sight of which, Virgil exhorts him to
close his eyes, and even covers them with his own hands. A devil, stand
ing behind the Furies on the tower, holds up the head of the Gorgon.
Borne on a whirlwind, a heavenly messenger passes dryfooted across
the Styx, the souls of the damned fleeing before him. He reaches the
gate of the city, and touches it with his wand, whereupon it flies open,
and Dante and Virgil enter. They find themselves in an open space,
full of flaming sepulchres, the lid of each suspended above it. From
within the tombs the poets hear the groans and cries of tortured heretics
and their followers.

ENGRAVING OF 1 48 1. The plate differs a good deal from the
drawing. The Gorgon, which appears behind the Furies on the tower

3g INFERNO
in the latter, is here represented borne forward by a devil to the right.
Many details of the composition are altered; the flaming graves of the
drawing are omitted in the print.

X
The poets proceed along a narrow pathway between the ramparts
and the fiery graves. The lids of the tombs are raised. (Virgil dis
courses of the souls within.) Dante hears a voice calling to him, that
of the Ghibelline Farinato degli Uberti, who raises himself from the waist
upwards out of his grave. Another shade, that of Cavalcante dei Caval-
canti, rises beside him, resting his chin on the edge of the tomb, and
also addresses Dante.

The poets continue their path to the left. To avoid the horrible
exhalations from the abyss in the centre of the plain (Inf. XI, 4-12),
they take refuge for a time under the lid of a great sepulchre , on which
is inscribed: "I guard Pope Anastasius". (Anastasius, Pope A. D. 496,
is placed by Dante among the heretics, on account of his leanings
towards the Arian schism.)
ENGRA VING OF 148 1. The print repeats nearly all the motives of
the drawing, from which, however, it differs considerably in arrangement.
The composition is reversed.

INFERNO

37

XI
ENGRAVING OF 148 1. Descending to the seventh circle, Dante and
Virgil come to a rocky bank of ruins. They take refuge behind the lid
of a huge tomb, to escape the noisome exhalations from below. On
the tomb is inscribed "I guard Pope Anastasius". (Cf. the illustration to

TTVTT1

the tenth canto). (Here they gradually become accustomed to the foul
air, and after a while are able to endure it. Virgil discourses to Dante
of the various circles and their inhabitants.)
The flaming graves of the arch -heretics are still to be seen in the
upper part of the print. (Cf. Inf. X.)

XII
Descending a rocky passage in the precipice, they
seventh circle. The Minotaur lies extended on the verge
and, enraged at the sight of the travellers, furiously gnaws
Virgil orders him hence, and he plunges aside, "like a
death -stroke". They step downward from crag to crag
supposed to have been riven at the birth of Christ, and
ditch shaped like a bow, extending across the wide plain.
filled with seething blood, in which lie the souls of the

come to the
of the abyss,
his own body.
bull under its
of the rock,
reach a deep
The ditch is
damned who

,g INFERNO
injured their fellow- men by violence and rapine. They are more or less
deeply immersed in proportion to the extent of their guilt. The flood
rises to the eyebrows of tyrants. Centaurs on the banks shoot arrows
at all who emerge from the blood further than is consistent with their
guilt. Three of the Centaurs, Nessus, Chiron, and Pholus, detach them
selves from the herd, and advance with threatening mien to meet the
travellers. Virgil subdues them. He persuades Chiron to send one of
his companions with them as guide. Nessus conducts them along the

shores of the stream to a spot where the blood becomes so shallow that
it only covers the feet. Here they cross the channel, and Nessus returns.
(On the way, Nessus points out to them some famous sinners, expiating
their crimes in the bloody tide.)
ENGRAVING OF 1 481. The print follows the drawing very closely,
reproducing the main motives, but reversing the composition.

XIII
Dante and Virgil pass on to the second division of the seventh circle.
They find themselves in a dense thicket of gnarled and thorny trees, in
which the Harpies build their nests. Dante hears on all sides cries and
lamentations, but cannot discern whence they come. The thorn -bushes

INFERNO

39

are, in fact, the transformed shades of suicides. Incited by Virgil, Dante
breaks off a branch, whereupon blood flows down the trunk, and the
tree breaks forth into a complaint of the suffering inflicted on it by the
poet. The speaker is Piero delle Vigne, Chancellor to the Emperor
Frederick II., who, falling into disgrace with his master, killed himself in
prison. Further on, Dante sees two shades pursued by black mastiffs.
These are the prodigals, Lano of Siena, and Jacopo da Sant' Andrea of

Padua. Jacopo takes refuge in one of the bushes, but is torn to pieces
by the dogs together with the bush. The lacerated trunk — a Floren
tine — intreats Dante to gather his scattered branches, and lay them at
his roots. ENGRAVING OF 148 1. The print is a condensed version of the
chief motives of the drawing, given in reverse.

XIV
ENGRAVING OF 148 1. The third round of the seventh circle.
Dante and Virgil, emerging from the thicket, come to an arid, sandy
plain, where blasphemers, Sodomites, and usurers do penance. Flames
fall upon them like snow-flakes; they endeavour to shield themselves
from the fiery shower with their uplifted hands. Some lie prone on the

40

INFERNO

ground, others sit in a crouching posture, but the greater number run
distractedly to and fro. One, who lies apparently indifferent to the falling

flames, Virgil explains to be Capaneus (V. 61). The red stream of
Phlegethon rises in the thicket. (Cf. Inf. XIII.)

XV
Passing along the shores of Phlegethon, which is compassed by
rocky dams, Dante and Virgil encounter a troop of the naked souls
tormented in the sandy waste (cf. Inf. XVI, 35). (They are the Sodo
mites.) One of the shades addresses Dante, who recognizes his former
tutor, Brunetto Latini. Dante stretches his hand downwards to Latini,
who begs him to continue his way, conversing with him as he walks.
(Their discourse forms the rest of the canto.)
The drawing is painted in body-colour, and, unlike the other illustra
tions , is arranged somewhat like a plan , so that the spectator seems to
be gazing downwards from a high point of sight on the plain below,
with its moving figures.

ENGRAVING OF 148 1. The print, while introducing fewer figures,
gives a selection from the leading motives of the drawing. In both,

INFERNO

41

the stream flows to the left, and lies to the right of the wide plain,
on which are scattered the figures of the damned. But whereas Dante,

Virgil, and Latini, are on the right bank of the river in the drawing, in
the print they appear on the left.

XVI
Continuing their way along the banks of Phlegethon, Dante and
Virgil encounter another band of Sodomites, doing penance in the sea
of sand and shower of flames. The poets come to a place where the
river forms a cascade, leaping over the rocky wall that divides the
seventh from the eighth circle. Three shades, hovering round Dante,
engage him in speech. They are the Florentines, Guidoguerra, Tegghiaio
Aldobrandi, and Jacopo Rusticucci.
At the edge of the abyss into which thunder the dark waters of
Phlegethon, Dante, at Virgil's command, unfastens a rope from his waist,
and lets it down into the gulf. The many- coloured monster, Geryon,
ascends forthwith and supports himself at the edge of the rampart.
In the drawing, Botticelli shews Geryon's head and fore -paws,
appearing in the left-hand lower corner. The usurers, of whom a further
account is given in the following canto, are seated in a group at the
edge of the precipice, under a shower of flame. Each has a pouch
slung round his neck.

INFERNO

ENGRAVING OF 148 1. The composition of the plate differs con
siderably from that of the drawing. The group of Dante and the three
Florentines is brought forward, and to the left are two of the usurers.

XVII
Dante and Virgil on the edge of the precipice that descends to the
eighth circle. The monster Geryon reclines on the dam. (Cf. the close
of the last canto.) He has the face of a just man, and the body of a
serpent. His back, breast, and sides are gaily patterned.
 Colours variegated more
Nor Turks nor Tartars e'er on cloth of state
With interchangeable embroidery wove (V. 15-17).
His tail ends in a fork, charged with poison, like that of the scorpion.
He lies with his breast on the upper ledge of the dyke, and beats the
air with his tail. The two poets are in the act of descending from the
river bank to approach Geryon on the edge of the cataract.
Dante turns aside to speak to the shades who sit on the confines
of the sandy desert, endeavouring to ward off the falling flames with
their hands. They are usurers. Each has a pouch slung round his
neck with his blazon or sign, upon it. Dante describes several of the
armorial bearings and emblems. These are not given, however, in the
drawing.

INFERNO

43

Virgil mounts on Geryon's back, and exhorts Dante to follow his
example. With much fear and hesitation he obeys, seating himself in
front of Virgil, who clasps him in his arms. Geryon carries them down
ward through the air. (Alighting with them at the bottom of the abyss,
he leaves them hastily, and disappears.)

ENGRAVING OF 148 1. The leading motive of the drawing is based
on the description of Virgil, seated on Geryon's back, encouraging Dante,
who still hesitates, to mount in front of him. The engraver distinguishes
two of the usurers by the emblazoned pouches described in the poem.
He who bears the lion is Gianfigliazzi (V. 59-60), the other, with the
goose, Ubbriacchi of Florence. The composition of the drawing is not
reversed in this print.

XVIII
In the upper left hand corner of the drawing, Dante and Virgil are
represented standing at the base of the precipice, while Geryon hastens
from them to the right. The bottom of the gulf in which they find
themselves consists of a circular space, divided into ten trenches, each
like the moat surrounding a fortress or castle. These moats, the Male-
bolge, are divided one from another by dykes, spanned by rock-hewn
bridges which connect the dams. In the centre of the space is a

44

INFERNO

deep spring. The eighteenth canto treats of the first and second Bolgia,
both of which Botticelli depicts.
In the first Bolgia the shades of seducers run along in double rows,
each row facing the opposite way from the other. Devils with leathern
thongs lash them from the dykes above (V. 25). One of the shades
hangs down his head, to escape the scrutiny of Dante, who nevertheless
recognizes in him Venedico Caccianimico of Bologna. (They converse
together.) Passing on the bridge that spans the second Bolgia, Dante beholds
the penance of flatterers, immersed in filth from head to foot. He re
cognizes Alessio Interminoi (Interminelli) of Lucca; Virgil points out to
him Thais, crouching in the filth, and tearing her hair.
This drawing is painted in body-colour, but there are evidences
that the colouring was not completed by the master in accordance with
his first intention.

ENGRAVING OF 148 1. This gives but a very inadequate idea of
the general composition of the drawing. Geryon is relegated to the
middle -distance in the upper part of the plate. So far as a comparison
of print and drawing is permissible, in such details, for instance, as the
position of the bridges, and the attitudes of Dante and Virgil in relation
to the figures in the moats, the print retains the arrangement of the
drawing, without reversing it.

INFERNO

45

XIX
Dante and Virgil pass on to the third Bolgia, in which are the souls
of those convicted of simony, or traffic in spiritual things. These are
fixed head downwards, in round holes in the ground, so that no more
of them than the legs appears without. Flames play upon the souls of
their feet. One among them, who writhes as if in greater agony than
his companions, attracts Dante's notice. Virgil carries the poet down
the incline into the chasm, where he interrogates the tortured sinner,
Pope Nicholas V.
Virgil then catches Dante in his arms, and ascends with him to the
summit of the bridge connecting the fourth and fifth causeways. In the
background of the drawing, the Bolgia of the flatterers, described in
the last canto, is again introduced.

ENGRAVING OF 1 48 1. The print adheres, on the whole, pretty
closely to the drawing, omitting, however, some of the figures. The
composition is not reversed. The two groups, Dante and Virgil de
scending to the simoniacs, and Virgil carrying Dante back, are to the
right of the bridge in the print, and to the left in the drawing.

XX
The fourth chasm of the eighth circle, the abode of soothsayers,
and wizards. Their punishment is to have their faces reversed, the heads
being violently twisted round on the bodies, because, while on earth,

.6 INFERNO

they desired to look too far forward. They pace mournfully along,
weeping in silence. Only two of the band are sufficiently prominent in
the drawing to enable us to identify them from Dante's descriptions,
the bearded Eurypylus above, to the right (V.106-112), and Manto, the
sorceress spoken of in V. 5 2 et seq.

XXI
The fifth gulf of the eighth circle, where public peculators are im
prisoned in a stream of burning pitch. Devils thrust them back into
the pitch with hooks whenever they rise above the surface. Dante and
Virgil stand on the rocky bridge that spans the stream. The latter gazes
with horror at a devil, who has just brought in one of the chief ma
gistrates of Lucca (Martino Bottaio, according to Ottimo's commentary)
and cast him into the lake of pitch. Below, in the centre of the drawing,
Dante is shewn endeavouring to hide among the rocks (V. 58-60).
Virgil subdues the demons, who rush out furiously against him, by an
account of his mission and authority. He then summons Dante from
his hiding-place, and the poets continue their way, escorted by eleven
devils. In order to reach the sixth Bolgia, they are obliged to make a
detour into the fifth.

XXII
Dante and Virgil skirt the shores of the lake of pitch in the fifth
gulf. Those who are tormented in the boiling flood occasionally rise for
an instant to the surface, disappearing again beneath. One, who ven
tures to emerge too far, is drawn to land by one of the devils, and
suffers further tortures. At Dante's request, Virgil questions him. He
replies that he was an unfaithful servant of the King of Navarre, Thi-
bault II. Barbaricia, the leader of the eleven devils who accompany
Dante and Virgil, holds him fast with his hook, while Virgil converses
with him.
Two of the devils fall into the lake, and are fished out by their
companions (V. 1 40 et seq.).
At the top of the sheet the figures of the soothsayers and magicians
of the fourth chasm are seen pacing along a rocky ledge, as described
in the twentieth canto.

INFERNO 47
XXIII
To the left, in the upper corner of the drawing, Dante and Virgil,
who have just left the fifth gulf, pace slowly forward, one behind the
other, like "minor friars, journeying on their road". Dante fears lest
the demons, incensed against Virgil and himself, should presently pur
sue them. His fears being shortly realized, Virgil seizes him in his arms,
and slides down the precipitous descent into the sixth chasm. Here the
demons of the fifth gulf have no power. Dante and Virgil find in the
depths of the sixth Bolgia the scene depicted in the lower part of the
drawing. Hypocrites march slowly and painfully along, shrouded in cowls,
overlaid with gold on the outside, but formed of lead within. Dante is
shewn conversing with Catalano and Loderingo of Bologna. Lying on
the ground, naked and crucified, are Caiaphas, Annas, and various
members of the Council of the Pharisees. (S. John XI, 47.) The sinners
in the leaden cowls pass over their prostrate bodies.

XXIV
Climbing with difficulty over the ruins of the shattered bridge, Dante
and Virgil reach the seventh gulf, where thieves and robbers undergo
their punishment. Their hands are bound together behind them with
serpents; and in front, serpents bore through their brains and loins.
In the centre of the foreground, Vanni Fucci, the pillager of a
church at Pistoja, is attacked by a fiery serpent, the bite of which causes
him to crumble into ashes; the ashes, however, immediately resume their
human form. Below, to the right, Vanni Fucci is shewn conversing
with Dante, and foretelling the future defeat of the Bianchi. The artist
again shews the spectator a portion of the last gulf, and a few of the
figures in the leaden cowls are seen to the left, coming forward from
behind a wall of rock. XXV
The canto opens with the blasphemies of the sacriligious Vanni Fucci.
Serpents seize him again, and he rushes away without further speech.
To the right, Botticelli shews the Centaur, Cacus, advancing towards
Fucci. To the left of the drawing, a six-footed serpent seizes Agnello
Brunelleschi, with whom it becomes incorporated. (V. 50 et seq) The

48 INFERNO
transformations of men into serpents, and of serpents into men are typi
fied by a variety of monstrous forms. Dante and Virgil appear twice in
the foreground, half their bodies only rising over the edge of the abyss.
In the upper part of the drawing we again see the hypocrites in their
leaden habits. (Inf. XXIII.)

XXVI
Re -ascending the face of the cliff, Dante and Virgil reach the
eighth gulf of Malebolge, where evil counsellors are enveloped in flames.
A flame, divided into two tongues, enshrouds Ulysses and Diomedes.
Their faces are visible through the fire. As the forked flame approaches
the poets, Virgil, at Dante's request, addresses Ulysses, who describes
the last of his voyages. XXVII
Dante and Virgil still in the eighth gulf of the eighth circle. They
converse with another of the flame-shrouded shades, Guido da Montefeltro.
XXVIII
The ninth gulf of the eighth circle, which contains the promoters
of divisions and discords. They move about with maimed limbs, and
divided bodies. As soon as the fissures re-unite, devils cleave them
asunder once more. Such is notably the punishment of Mahomet, the
author of the greatest religious schism ever known, who is, no doubt
represented by the figure in the upper part of the drawing, somewhat
to the left of the centre. The figure close to Mahomet, advancing to
wards the left, is Mahomet's son-in-law, AH, the promoter of a further
schism in Mahommedanism itself. Others, mentioned in the poem as
undergoing a like penance, are characterized by Botticelli, among them
Piero da Medicina, and Mosca Lamberti. The figure holding out his
own head to Dante, is the troubadour, Bertrand de Born, who incited
Prince Henry of England (the "Young King") to rebel against his father,
Henry II. XXIX
In the upper part of the drawing Dante and Virgil are standing
upon the bridge of the ninth chasm, Bertrand de Born holding up his

INFERNO 49

head to them from below. A rock-hewn dyke divides this gulf from
the tenth, in which coiners and alchemists do penance, tormented by
various diseases. They scrape the scurf from their bodies with their
nails. In the foreground to the right, Dante and Virgil pause to con
verse with two of the damned, seated back to back on the ground.
One is an alchemist, Griffolino ofArezzo, the other a Florentine coiner,
Capocchio. A group to the right of the drawing refers to an episode in the
following canto, V. 25 et seq. The man, running forward, and the
woman who fastens her teeth into his flesh from behind, can only be
intended for Giovanni Schicchi (Inf. XXX, 31) and Myrrha (ib. V. 38).

XXX
The illustration to this canto is a mere sketch. The poets still
linger in the tenth gulf. To the right, Botticelli indicates the bridge
on which they stand by a few curving lines. Beyond is the figure of
the coiner, Adam of Brescia, his body swollen with dropsy (V. 49 et seq.),
and three other figures, very lightly sketched.

XXXI
As he approaches the rampart of the last gulf, Dante hears the
blast of a horn. Ranged along the wall, he sees gigantic forms, which
at first he takes for towers. They are, however, fettered giants, who,
standing in the well-like cavity of the ninth circle, tower aloft into the
eighth. The blower of the horn is Nimrod, and the fettered figure,
whose back is turned to the spectator, is Ephialtes. At Virgil's request,
Antseus lifts the two poets, and places them at the bottom of the last
circle. XXXII
Dante and Virgil have reached the first division of the last circle,
the Caina, so-named after the first fratricide. They stand on the frozen
lake, in the ice of which are imprisoned the murderers of their kinsfolk.
Dante converses with Alessandro and Napoleone degli Alberti, whose
bodies are frozen together. On the rampart above, the feet of the
giants are visible (cf. Inf. XXXI, V. 31 et seq.). 7

5o INFERNO
Adjoining the Caina is the "Antenora", the division set apart for
the betrayers of their fatherland (from Antenor, the Trojan, who sug
gested to the Greeks the stratagem of the wooden horse). Dante seizes
one of the frozen inmates by the hair, and compels him to reveal his
name. It is Bocca degli Abbati. Passing on, the poets come to Count
Ugolino della Gherardesca, who is gnawing the skull of the Archbishop
Ruggieri degli Ubaldini. Part of this drawing refers to the next canto.
Above the circle of the Caina is written the word "Chaina", above the
next division "antenora". XXXIII
This drawing shews the four divisions of the lake of ice, the Caina,
the Antenora, the Ptolemea (from Ptolemy, see Maccab. XVI, 11-16),
and Giudecca (from Judas Iscariot). Dante and Virgil are shewn conversing
with Ugolino in the Antenora, and below, in the Ptolemea, with Alberigo
de' Manfredi ofFaenza, whose body remains on earth, apparently alive,
though his soul is already in hell. The damned lie prone on their backs,
the tears freezing in their eyes (V. 93-99). The division in the fore
ground, the Giudecca, is left blank. XXXIV
Botticelli devotes two drawings to the thirty-fourth canto. The first
represents the upper half of Lucifer, three-headed, and with bat-like
wings, as described in V. 38-50. In the mouth of the central head he
champs the body of Judas Iscariot, tearing with his claws the part of
his prey that hangs outside his jaws. The traitors Brutus and Cassius
are in the other mouths.
The second drawing shews the whole figure of Satan , on a page
twice the size of the other illustrations, and formed of two sheets of
vellum fastened together. At various intervals , the figures of Dante and
Virgil are shewn, climbing along the monster, and clinging to the frozen
locks of his shaggy fell. At the central point of the universe, they turn,
and still climbing upwards towards the feet of Satan , enter a cavernous
path, whence they emerge into the open air.

PURGATORIO

I
In the illustration to this canto Botticelli recurs to the closing lines
of the Inferno, shewing, in the centre of the drawing, the figures of
Dante and Virgil emerging from the cleft in the rocks, through which,
after following the course of a brook , they gain the open air (Inf. XXXIV,
133 et seq.). They perceive an old man of dignified appearance on the
plain before them. It is Cato of Utica. (They converse with him.)
The figures of Dante and Virgil, and the episode of Dante bowing
reverently before Cato at Virgil's command, are very lightly sketched
in outline. Virgil is shewn washing Dante's face by the waterside, and
girding him with rushes, as directed by Cato.
To the left of the drawing we note various episodes related in the
following canto. In the background, touched in very lightly with the
point, is the ship, in which departed souls are conveyed to Purgatory.
An angel propels the boat with his wings (Purg. II, 26-33). Some of
the souls are depicted hastening up the bank (ib. 50).
In the background is the mountain of Purgatory, with its various
divisions. Below, on the edge of the drawing are the opening words of the
first canto: 1 perchore miglior aqua
(Per correr migliori acque).
II
Here a scene already depicted in the foregoing illustration is again
introduced, but in greater detail.
The souls conveyed to the shores of Purgatory disembark when
the Angel makes the sign of the cross (V. 49-50). The Angel then
departs with the boat.
The souls enquire of Dante and Virgil the way to the mountain,
and are much astonished to find a living person— Dante— in their midst.

54 PURGATORIO
Dante recognizes the singer, Casella, and fain would embrace him, but
finds his shade impalpable to his clasp. Cato admonishes the souls to
proceed, and they hastily resume their course. The departing figures
are very slightly sketched. At the bottom of the drawing the opening
line of the second canto is written as follows:
2 gia era il sole al orezonte
(Gia era il sole all' orizzonte).
Ill
Dante and Virgil proceed from the shore of Purgatory towards the
mountain. (The sun being behind them, Dante's body projects a shadow,
whereas the rays pass through the immaterial form of Virgil.) Dante,
alarmed at this phenomenon, is reassured by Virgil.
They reach the base of the mountain, which they find so steep,
that they despair of climbing it. "On the left hand" (Dante's left hand,
therefore to the right in the picture) they perceive a troop of spirits
standing closely together on the crags. Virgil enquires of them where
he may find some declivity in the mountain-wall. Amazed at Dante's
corporeal presence, they stand with downcast eyes and timid mien,
while Virgil explains the presence of a mortal among them. (Dante con
verses with Manfred, King of Naples.)
Supplementing the images of the poet, as if to emphasize the scene
of action, and its connection with the preceding canto, Botticelli has
introduced a group of souls arriving on the shores of Purgatory, and,
in the distance, the angel returning across the waters with his boat
(Purg. II). The opening line of Canto III is inscribed on the edge of
the drawing: 3 avegnia che la subitana fugha
(Avvegna che la subitana fuga).

IV
The poets pass along the steep base of the mountain with the
spirits, who agree to shew them where to ascend. They come to a
narrow cleft in the rocks, whereupon the spirits exclaim in chorus that
here is the path they desire. Dante and Virgil press forward laboriously
in the narrow path. Weary with climbing, Dante is encouraged by
Virgil to persevere, and they reach a projecting cornice, on which they

PURGATORIO

55

seat themselves to rest. They face towards the East, and discuss the
position of the sun, which Dante now perceives to be on his left. Resting
under the shade of a neighbouring rock, they note a group of spirits,
among whom Dante recognizes the Florentine Belacqua, an accomplished
musician. (He converses with Belacqua.) The opening words of the
canto at the bottom of the page are partly effaced:
4 quando per dilectan . .
(Quando per dilettanze).

V
As Dante and Virgil leave the resting spirits, one among them
remarks that Dante's gestures are those of a living person, and that his
body throws a shadow. Virgil commands him to pay no heed to the
whispers of the spirits (V. 1-15). The group introduced by Botticelli in
the lower part of the drawing refers to this incident. Approaching them
along the side of the hill, the poets perceive a group of spirits, who
advance, singing the Miserere. When they note the substantiality of
Dante's body, they cease their song, and two of their number, running
forward, enquire as to the condition of the wanderers. Virgil informs
them that Dante is a living person, and bids them tell their comrades.
The spirits then cluster round Dante. They are the souls of such as
died by violence, but who, nevertheless, were granted time for repen
tance in their last hours. They beseech Dante to obtain for them the
prayers of their friends, when he shall have returned to the world.
(Three of the spirits are introduced by name in the poem , and give an
account of themselves.) Under the drawing are the opening words of
the fifth canto: 5 i era gia da quel ombre parttito
(lo era gia da quell' ombre partito).

VI
Dante disengages himself with some difficulty from the shades who
cluster round him. Continuing his journey, he enquires of Virgil whether
the prayers of mortals ever avail to influence the decrees of Heaven.
Virgil refers him to Beatrice , whom he shall meet at the summit of the
mountain.

56

PURGATORIO

They encounter a solitary spirit, who gazes fixedly at them. As
Virgil approaches him to enquire the way, the shade — who is Sordello,
the Mantuan Troubadour— joyfully greets the poet as his compatriot.
The group formed by Sordello and Virgil, with a number of spirits
gathered round them, is very faintly sketched with the silver point in
the upper part of the drawing. Below are the opening words of the
canto : 6 quando siparte el giuocho dela zara
(Quando si parte il giuoco della zara).
VII
Sordello inclines himself reverently before Virgil (V. 1 5) , and clasps
him round the knees. The sun is setting, and the wanderers are anxious
to continue their journey. Sordello warns them that after nightfall, they
are powerless to ascend the mountain. He draws a line with his finger
on the earth, saying: — " . . . . this line
Thou shalt not over pass, soon as the sun
Hath disappeared." (V. 53-54.)
Sordello conducts them by a crooked path "betwixt the steep and
plain" to a recess in the mountain side, gay with flowers, where abide
the souls of many kings and princes, who, absorbed in cares of state,
deferred their own repentance and atonement over long.
Only that part of the composition which refers to the first division
of the canto, and treats of the meeting with Sordello, is executed with
the pen. The portions of the drawing to the right, and to the lower
part of the page are merely sketched in silver point, with the exception
of one or two figures, such as that seated to the left, wearing the papal
tiara, and the bearded man addressing him. Both of these are more
elaborately treated. At the bottom of the page is the first verse of the
Canto : — 7 poscia che lachoglenze oneste e liete
(Poscia che 1' accoglienze oneste e liete).
VIII
This design , which the artist evidently intended to treat with great
elaboration and richness of detail, was never carried beyond the first

PURGATORIO

57

light sketch with the silver-point. The principal groups are barely
distinguishable. Sordello has brought Dante and Virgil to the valley, in which the
souls of the princes whose tardy repentance is spoken of in Canto VII,
do penance. Dante perceives two angels armed with blunt swords,
descending from the heights above, their draperies floating behind
them. One of the angels alights near Dante, the other on the op
posite boundary of the vale. Sordello informs the poets that the
angels have come to defend the valley from a serpent, which will shortly
appear. The poets descend with Sordello into the hollow. (Dante converses
with the judge, Nino Visconti, and with Corrado Malaspina.)
Pointing with his finger, Sordello shews the poets the serpent,
appearing through the grass and flowers on the opposite side of the
little valley (V. 94-99). The angel, whom Dante can no longer see
distinctly through the growing darkness, though he hears the beating of
his wings, puts the serpent to flight.
It is possible that the faint and sketchy character of this drawing
is a deliberate device of the artist's, indicating the twilight in which the
episodes of this Canto are supposed to take place.
The opening line of the Canto appears below, the characters partly
effaced: — 8 era gia lora che volge el disio
(Era gia l'ora che volge il disio).

IX
Overcome by fatigue, Dante falls asleep. He has a vision of an
eagle, which, seizing him in its talons, bears him upward to the sphere
of purgatorial fire. Awaking, he is informed by Virgil that they are
now at the entrance of Purgatory, whither Lucia (the enlightening Grace
of Heaven) has conveyed him while he slept. They reach a narrow
gate, in front of which are three steps. On the uppermost sits an angel.
Instructed by Virgil, Dante falls on his knees before the angel, and
implores him to open the gate. The angel, before complying, inscribes
seven P's (for Peccata, to denote the seven deadly sins from which Pur
gatory cleanses), with the point of his sword on Dante's forehead. (The
close of the Canto, describing the entrance of Dante and Virgil into the

58 PURGATORIO
first circle of Purgatory, has no illustration.) The first line of the Canto
is inscribed in faint characters below the drawing: — -
9 la chonchubina di titane anticho
(La concubina di Titone antico).

X
The first circle of Purgatory. After climbing a winding pathway
leading through a fissure in the rock, the poets emerge on a flat cor
nice, running right and left round the mountain, and forming a sort of
causeway, the outer edge bordering a sharp declivity, the inner abutting
on the precipitous face of the mountain, here of pure white marble,
sculptured with skilfully wrought reliefs, illustrating the virtue of humility.
The first represents the Annunciation. The second (to the right) David,
bringing home the ark on a cart drawn by oxen. His wife Michal gazes
contemptuously at the scene from a window of the palace. The third
relief represents "The Justice of Trajan". (This episode, taken from the
pages of Dion Cassius, was a favourite subject of mediaeval art. The
legend relates that a poor widow, whose son had been slain, made her
complaint to Trajan, just as he was setting forth on a campaign. Not
withstanding his pre-occupations, the Emperor turned about, listened to
her case, and caused justice to be administered.)
In the second drawing, the ark and David's palace are lightly
sketched in with the silver-point, whereas "The Justice of Trajan", is
elaborated into a composition of many figures, very carefully and minutely
executed with the pen. It is further distinguished by a peculiar kind
of frame. (It is to be observed that the reproduction gives but an in
adequate idea of the delicacy and sharpness of the original in this par
ticular instance.)
Dante sees a number of persons approaching, bending under the
weight of heavy blocks of stone. These are the proud, who are thus
condemned to expiate their sin.

XI
The first circle of Purgatory. The souls of the proud pass along,
weighed down by their heavy burdens (cf. Purg. X). Virgil enquires the
way of one of them, who reveals himself as Umberto di Santafiore,

PURGATORIO 59
whose arrogance provoked his countrymen to such a pitch of fury against
him, that he was murdered by them at Campagnatico.
Dante recognizes in another the famous miniature painter, Oderisi
da Gubbio. Bending to his level, Dante walks along conversing with
him: "with equal pace, as oxen in the yoke" (Purg. XII, V. i).
XII
The first circle of Purgatory. On the floor of the rocky cornice,
as on the mountain wall behind it, are various illustrations of fallen pride.
Some of these as described in the poem , Botticelli has drawn with the
pen, or sketched in silver-point; others he omits altogether. In the fore
ground to the right, Dante and Virgil contemplate the imagine of the
fallen Lucifer (V. 25-27); in the middle distance is shewn Briareus, "with
bolt celestial pierced" (V. 28-30); in the background, lightly sketched
with the point , the flight of the Assyrians after the death of Holofernes
(V. 58-59). To the left of Lucifer, in the foreground, Jupiter, attended
by Pallas, Mars and Apollo, contemplates the scattered limbs of the
fallen Titans (V. 31-33). Beyond is Nimrod, at the base of the crum
bling tower of Babel; Niobe surrounded by the corpses of her children
(V. 37-39); and Saul falling upon his sword (the last very slightly sketched).
In the corner to the left are seen the ruins of Ilium (V. 60).
Admonished by Virgil, Dante turns to continue the ascent, and
encounters an angel, who, clasping him with arms and wings, brings
him to a place where steps are hewn in the steep side of the rock.
The angel then beats upon Dante's forehead with his wing (V. 98)
effacing one of the P's traced there by the angel with the sword. (See
the drawing to Canto IX.) Of this Dante becomes aware by touching
his forehead as they proceed.
To the left, near the edge of the drawing, two of the proud are
still visible, carrying their burdens (cf. Purg. XI).
XIII
Dante and Virgil enter the second circle of Purgatory. Dante sees
on this cornice a band of figures in sack -cloth, leaning against the rock,
like blind beggars against a church porch. Approaching them, he per
ceives that their eyes are sewn up with a wire thread. Dante is over
come with pity. They are the envious, who thus expiate their offences.
(Dante converses with Sapia, a lady of Siena.)

g0 PURGATORIO XIV
Dante and Virgil in the second circle, among the envious, who are
represented with sightless eyes seated on the ground, and leaning one
against the other (cf. Purg. XIII). To the right of the drawing Dante
is shewn conversing with Guido del Duca; beside him sits Rinieri da
Calboli. As the poets pass on, they hear voices, resembling the roar
of thunder and the hissing of lightning, which record warning instances
of envy. XV
The poets prepare to leave the second circle of Purgatory. Botti
celli, taking advantage of Dante's question as to the meaning of Guido
del Duca's utterances (V. 43 et seq:), again represents the latter, with
Rinieri da Calboli beside him, and other groups of the envious in the
second circle, though these are no longer present in Canto XV.
A shining apparition confronts Dante, who, dazzled by its splen
dour, shields his eyes with his hand. It is an angel, who admonishes
the poets to continue their ascent.
Botticelli indicates Dante's vision of notable instances of patience,
by representing the poet lying asleep on the higher ledge of the mountain.
Dante and Virgil enter the third circle of Purgatory.

XVI
Dante and Virgil in the third circle. Enveloped in a dense mist,
they hear the souls of penitents singing the Agnus Dei. The group in
the foreground to the left, where Dante catches at the hanging sleeve
of Virgil's robe, refers to V. 8-11:
 near me drew the faithful guide
Offering me his shoulder for a stay.
As the blind man behind his leader walks . . .
I journey'd through that bitter air and foul.
The singers are the souls of those who have given way to anger.
Dante converses with the Lombard, Marco, whose form is concealed from
him by the mist.
Strange to say, Botticelli , disregarding the poem , makes the figures
distinctly visible, though they are described as shrouded in a dense
vapour.

PURGATORIO 6l
XVII
Dante and Virgil emerge from the thick mist in which the souls of
the wrathful are concealed. An angel, still more glorious than the last,
appears to conduct them to the fourth circle, which they reach by a
flight of steps. A deep stillness reigns on the fourth cornice. It is the
circle in which the indolent and indifferent do penance.

XVIII
The fourth circle of Purgatory. Dante moves slowly forward, lost
in thought. A hurrying crowd presses on behind him, the shades of
those who in life were dilatory and indifferent. Two spirits, the leaders
of the band, recount instances of zeal and activity. The scene, as
described in the poem, passes by moonlight.

XIX
Dante's vision, described in the opening verses of the Canto, Botti
celli indicates as before, by shewing the poet asleep on the ground, and
again, by representing him following Virgil, with drooping head, as if
absorbed in meditation (V. 40-43).
An angel with outspread wings exhorts the wanderers to continue
their ascent. They reach the fifth circle. The souls here imprisoned
lie weeping on the ground, their feet and hands bound with fetters, their
faces turned to the earth. (They are again represented thus in the two
following drawings.) They are the covetous bewailing their sin (V. 115
to 126). Dante converses with Pope Adrian V. Dante sinks upon his
knees , in deference to the Papal office , whereupon Adrian bids him rise,
declaring that the poet and he are fellow-servants and equals.

XX
The fifth circle of Purgatory. Dante hears a voice extolling the
virtue and poverty of Fabricius. Approaching the speaker, he finds him
to be Hugh Capet. (They converse together.) Meanwhile, shouts of
triumph resound on all sides, and the mountain trembles. Dante and
Virgil stand awe-struck for a while, then hastily resume their course.

62 PURGATORIO XXI
The fifth circle of Purgatory. A shade approaches , and explains to
the poets that the mountain quakes and the song of joy resounds each
time the cleansing of a soul is accomplished. The spirit declares him
self to be the poet Statius, and to have just completed his term of
penance. On hearing that Virgil stands before him, he attempts to
embrace him. XXII
Dante and Virgil enter the sixth circle of Purgatory with Statius.
Dante follows the two poets, who hasten forward, conversing together
(V. 7-9). The group of the three poets to the right, below, refers to
this episode, while the second group is suggested by the reiterated
description of their progress in V. 127-129. Verses 131-134: —
A tree we found, with goodly fruitage hung
And pleasant to the smell; and as a fir
Upward from bough to bough, less ample spreads,
So downward this less ample spread,
Botticelli has interpreted in the sense of several early commentators,
representing the tree with its root above, and its boughs below.
Virgil and Statius approach the tree, from which a voice is heard
speaking. Below the drawing are the opening words of the Canto:
gia era Ian 22
(Gia era 1' Angel).

XXIII
Dante, Virgil, and Statius in the sixth circle of Purgatory. While
Dante is still gazing into the foliage of the tree, a crowd of spirits
approach the wanderers from behind. Pale, hollow-eyed and emaciated,
they expiate by hunger and thirst their earthly offence of gluttony. The
tree, which has the form of a fir, turned upside down, is laden with
perfumed fruits, which excite a desire to eat and drink. Dante recog
nizes the Florentine Forese among the penitents, and converses with
him. (Whereas the tree in the foregoing illustration resembled a fir in
growth and foliage, it is here drawn with fruit and leaves like those of
the orange-tree.)

PURGATORIO 63
XXIV
Dante converses with Forese, who lingers behind the band of spirits.
When Forese leaves him, Dante perceives a second tree, and a
crowd of spirits, who stretch out their hands to the fruit and foliage.
A voice from the tree warns them to desist. The tree is a sapling
from the tree of knowledge tasted by Eve, which stands in a higher
circle of Purgatory.
The causeway now becomes broader. The three poets move for
ward, somewhat apart one from another, absorbed in meditation. A
shining angel appears to Dante, and points out the way to be followed
by those who seek the realms of peace.
In the upper right hand corner of the drawing are shewn the flames
of the seventh circle, described in the following Canto.

XXV
Below to the right, only partially carried out, is the group of the
three poets, ascending by a cleft in the rocks to the seventh cornice.
Dante, who asks how it is possible that spirits, no longer requiring
corporeal nourishment, can yet feel hunger and thirst, is referred by
Virgil to Statius; the latter explains the phenomenon. They reach the
seventh cornice, were the souls of the incontinent are purged by fire
from the stain of unlawful love. The strains of the "Summse Deus
Clementiae" are heard from within the flames.

XXVI
Dante, Virgil and Statius in the seventh circle of Purgatory. The
souls of the incontinent do penance in a circle of flame which extends
along the cornice, leaving only a narrow space at the outer edge for
the passage of the poets. As they are purged in the flames, the spirits
sing the praises of chastity. XXVII
Dante, Virgil and Statius in the seventh circle of Purgatory. Op
posing crowds of spirits meet in the flames, and hastily kiss one another.
One of the shades remarks the substantiality of Dante's body, and informs
him that the bands of spirits running forward in opposite directions are

64

PURGATORIO

souls doing penance for different degrees of incontinence. The shade
then makes himself known as the poet Guido Guinicelli of Bologna.
An angel appears, and commands the poets to follow him through
the fire. Dante, clasping his hands, hesitates to obey the order, till
admonished by Virgil, and assured that beyond the flames he will once
more behold Beatrice. The three poets pass through, Virgil in front,
Dante following him, and Statius behind. Emerging from the flames,
they begin to ascend steps in the cliff beyond; the sun sets, and the
three travellers lie down to rest on the rocks. (Dante's dream.) Virgil
resigns his office of conductor, investing Dante "with crown and mitre,
sovereign o'er himself," a figure interpreted by Botticelli as the crowning
of Dante with a laurel wreath.

XXVIII
Dante, in company with his companions, but no longer conducted
by them , enters a pleasant wood at the summit of the mountain of Pur
gatory. He wanders to the shore of a brook, on the opposite bank of
which he sees a beautiful woman, Matilda, gathering flowers, and singing
as she walks. At Dante's request she approaches the edge of the brook,
the source of the rivers Lethe and Eunoe. (Dante and Matilda converse.)

XXIX
Dante, Virgil and Statius follow Matilda's footsteps, as she advances
on the opposite bank of the stream. (Dante sees the wood illumined
with supernatural light, and hears sweet music.) A procession approaches,
with the triumphal car of the Church in its midst. In front march seven
standard-bearers with golden tapers, the flames of which trail behind
them on the air, gleaming with the colours of the rainbow, and exten
ding beyond mortal sight. (Symbolic of the seven gifts of the Holy
Ghost and the seven Sacraments.) Behind these, four and twenty elders
advance in couples. Botticelli represents them with books in their hands,
adopting the theory advanced by Landino in his Commentary, that the
four and twenty elders typify the books of the Old Testament. The
poem describes the elders as crowned with lilies; these, however, Botti
celli omits.
The car of the church, which rests on two wheels, is drawn by a
Gryphon, the type of Christ. His wings rise high into the air between

PURGATORIO 65
the streamers of light from the tapers (V. 106-m). Behind the car
come the "Three" (the evangelical virtues), then the "Four" (the moral
virtues), then an old man, sleeping as he walks (St. John). The car is
surrounded by symbols of the four evangelists.
The chariot is only sketched in the drawing. Of the evangelistic
symbols only the eagle is carried out with the pen; the six-footed lion
is drawn in outline with the silver point. "Three maidens" (Faith, Hope
and Charity) dance at the right wheel (V. 121 et seq); "four" (Justice,
Valour, Wisdom, Prudence) at the left (V. 130 et seq.). St. Paul and
St. Luke walk behind the chariot. They are followed by four other old
men — "next, four others I beheld of humble seeming". One of these
is represented in the drawing as wearing a papal tiara, another with a
cardinal's hat, and the remaining two with bishop's mitres. (The figure
in the upper corner is sketched in twice; the group of persons im
mediately following the car is so hastily executed that throughout it is
far from distinct.)
The mitres, the cardinal's hat, and the tiara introduced by Botti
celli shew that he rejected the current exposition of the text, which
identified the "Four" with the Evangelists, in favour of the theory of
certain commentators, who saw in these four figures the Fathers of the
Church, Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory the Great, and Jerome. (Botti
celli's conception is more clearly shewn in the illustration to Canto XXX,
where the same group is much more distinctly drawn.)
The Evangelist Saint John follows at a considerable distance from
the rest. He is represented asleep, in allusion to his apocalyptic vision.
At the edge of the drawing below are the words: —
chantand0 29.

XXX
(The meeting of Dante and Beatrice.) The car is brought to a
stand-still; the four and twenty elders, turning to face it, chant "Veni,
sponsa de Libano". Angels scatter flowers from above. In the midst
of the shower of blossoms Beatrice rises from the car, veiled in white,
and crowned with an olive garland. (Dante turns in awe to seek the
protection of Virgil; but Virgil has disappeared; Statius stands alone by
the Poet's side.) Beatrice impressively rebukes Dante.
Between Dante and the triumphal procession with its car lies the
brook Eunoe. The allegorical figures of the four moral virtues dance

66 PURGATORIO
beside the left wheel of the chariot, behind which stand St. Paul, and
St. Luke, the four Fathers, and the slumbering St. John (cf. Purg. XXIX).
The Gryphon's wings rise between the streaming banderoles of light that
flow from the tapers, in such a manner that the central streamer floats
between the wings (Purg. XXIV, V. 109-111). (Landino in his Com
mentary explains this central streamer to typify the Sacrament of the
Eucharist.)

XXXI
The procession remains stationary. Beatrice addresses Dante, re
buking him for certain offences.
Botticelli's drawing deals more especially with the objects described
in V. 92-133.
Matilda now seizes Dante, and draws him through the water towards
the opposite bank, the stream immersing him to the chin, while his
conductress skims across the waves, "swift as a shuttle". She finally
dips his head under the water (V. 101)..... thence raising up
Within the fourfold dance of lovely nymphs
Presented me so laved; and with their arms
They each did cover me. (V. 103-105.)
The four maidens lead Dante to the Gryphon's breast (V. 1 1 3),
"where, turn'd toward us, Beatrice stood" (V. 114). Botticelli, however,
disregarding the words of the poet, depicts her still seated in the chariot,
and addressing Dante, round whom are grouped the four nymphs, from
this eminence. The three theological virtues then advance, dancing and singing
(V. 1 31-132). (They beg Beatrice to remove her veil.)
In accordance with the text, Botticelli has made the scenery of his
drawing the same, in all essentials, as that of the illustrations to Can
tos XXIX and XXX. In the centre is the car, with the Gryphon, whose
wings rise up through the streaks of light. The chariot is surrounded
by the symbols of the four Evangelists; behind it are the "Seven"
(St. Paul and St. Luke, the four Fathers, and the Evangelist St. John).
A few of the four and twenty elders, who march before the car, holding
books in their out-stretched hands , are still visible in the left-hand corner
of the drawing.

PURGATORIO 67
XXXII
Dante sees the chariot turn suddenly to the right. He follows at
the left wheel, with Statius and Matilda. They come to the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, where Beatrice quits the chariot. She
seats herself on the ground at the root of the tree, the seven bearers
of the tapers surrounding her (V. 85 et seq). The Gryphon binds the
pole of the chariot to the tree (V. 96).
The chariot undergoes a transformation as Dante gazes at it. An
eagle appears in the tree, swoops down into the car, and leaves it
"lined with his feathers". A dragon comes out from between the wheels,
while on every part of the car monstrous heads spring forth, three,
horned like oxen, on the pole; one, with a single horn on the brow,
at each corner. A harlot guarded by a giant who embraces her, stands
upon it. (An allegory on the state of the church.)
The elders are seen disappearing among the streamers of light
above (V. 17-18).
The figures of Dante and Statius re-appear several times among
the various groups. XXXIII
(At the close of the thirty-second canto the desecrated car, with
the giant and the harlot, disappears into the depths of the forest.)
Beatrice still remains seated at the root of the tree, surrounded
by the "Three", and the "Four". The seven maidens chant a hymn.
At Beatrice's command they then continue their course. (Beatrice and
Dante converse as they walk.) They come to a fountain, on the sum
mit of Purgatory, the source of Lethe and Eunoe. At Beatrice's com
mand, Matilda leads Dante, accompanied by Statius, to drink of the
waters of Eunoe. Refreshed and strengthened by the heavenly draught,
Dante is prepared for his entrance into Paradise: —
Pure and made apt for mounting to the stars. (V. 145.)

PARADISO

I
In the illustrations to this canto, Botticelli shews us Dante con
ducted by Beatrice to the spheres of Paradise. They are depicted float
ing upwards over meadows watered by the stream of Eunoe. The artist
has drawn his inspiration from the closing verse of the Purgatorio : —
Pure and made apt for mounting to the stars,
from V. 47 and 48 of Canto I of the Paradiso, which describe Beatrice
as gazing upwards at the sun, like the eagle, and from the imagery
of verses 92, 93, 136-139, illustrating the lightning- course of Dante and
his mistress through the air, a course which, governed by the natural
laws of the sphere they have entered, has become so swift and easy
as to be almost imperceptible to the poet. (Cf. also Par. II, 22: "Bea
trice upward gazed, and I on her.") .
II
Dante's discourse with Beatrice, in the sphere of the moon, enter
ing which they seem to be enveloped in a cloud of diamond. The
drawing is suggested by V. 127-136:
The virtue and motion of the sacred orbs
As mallet by the workman's hands, must needs
By blessed movers be inspired. This heaven
Made beauteous by so many luminaries,
From the deep spirit that moves its circling sphere,
Its image takes, an impress like a seal.
And as the soul that dwells within your dust,
Through members different, yet together form'd,
In different power resolves itself; e'en so
The intellectual efficacy unfolds
Its goodness multiplied throughout the stars.

72

PARADISO

III
Dante and Beatrice in the sphere of the moon. Dante sees forms
shining faintly through the luminous atmosphere, and takes them for
reflections of actual substances. He looks first backwards, then for
wards in search of their supposed originals, an action the artist sug
gests by drawing the poet's head in both attitudes. Beatrice explains
to Dante that the forms he mistakes for reflections are the souls of
those who have involuntarily broken their vows.
Straight to the shadow which for converse seem'd
Most earnest, I address'd me ... (V. 34, 35.)
This was the nun, Piccarda. Dante converses with her.
IV
Dante and Beatrice in the sphere of the moon. The souls of
the blessed float around them in space (cf. Par. III). Beatrice reads in
Dante's face the doubts that perplex his mind, and answers the questions
he would fain propound, as to whether the good intentions of one per
son can be annulled by the violence of another, and as to the correct
ness of Plato's theory, that the souls of men return, after death on
earth, to their appointed stars in the heavens.

V
As Dante gazes on Beatrice, he is dazzled by the supernatural
brightness of her face. (Close of Canto IV.) She answers Dante's en
quiry, as to whether man by other service can make atonement for
broken vows in the negative.

VI
The second part of the fifth canto relates how Dante and Beatrice
ascend to the sphere of the second planet, Mercury. Botticelli's next
drawing seems to have been inspired by V. 91 et seq. in Canto V:
And as the arrow, ere the cord is still
Leapeth unto its mark, so on we sped
Into the second realm. There I beheld
The dame so joyous enter that the orb
Grew brighter at her smiles . . .

PARADISO 73
Dante sees thousands of shining spirits flashing through the air like
fish in a lake. The sixth canto, being mainly occupied with the discourse
between Dante and the Emperor Justinian, offered no special incidents
for pictorial treatment. VII
Dante and Beatrice linger in Mercury, surrounded by troops of
shining spirits. Other doubts arise in Dante's mind. He discourses of
them with Beatrice. VIII
Dante and Beatrice enter the third heaven, the sphere of the planet
Venus. Glorified spirits circle round them in rapid flight. (Dante con
verses with Charles Martel, son of Charles II of Naples.)

IX
Dante and Beatrice in the sphere of Venus. (Another resplendent
soul approaches the poet.) The drawing probably refers to V. 1 6 et seq.
.... The eyes
Of Beatrice, resting as before
Firmly upon me, manifested forth
Approval of my wish.
X
Dante and Beatrice enter the sphere of the sun. The drawing illus
trates V. 52-59: And thus to me Beatrice: "Thank, oh thank
The Sun of Angels , him , who by his grace
To this perceptible hath lifted thee."
Never was heart in such devotion bound
And with complacency so absolute
Disposed to render up itself to God
As mine was at those words.

XI
Dante and Beatrice in the sphere of the Sun. The design of this
drawing, which, like the next in order, may have been only partially

74 PARADISO

carried out, seems to have been suggested to Botticelli by the opening
lines of Canto XI, in which Dante expresses his sense of happiness at
having been withdrawn from the trivialities of human life to be the guest of
Heaven with Beatrice (V. 1-12). Dante's gesture apparently expresses
some such thought. (Thomas Aquinas converses with Dante.)

XII
Dante and Beatrice in the sphere of the Sun. Botticelli no doubt
intended to carry out this design in much greater detail; only the figures
of Dante and Beatrice were completed, however. Dante finds himself
surrounded by two circles of glorified souls, which he likens to a double
rainbow. (The Franciscan , Buonaventura , celebrates the virtues of Saint
Dominic.) XIII
Dante and Beatrice in the sphere of the Sun. The twin rainbows
circle in opposite courses round Dante (cf. Par. XI and XII). Thomas
Aquinas resumes his converse with Dante.

XIV
This drawing deals with the second part of Canto XIV (from V. 67).
Dante and Beatrice ascend to a higher sphere, that of Mars. In the
mien and gestures of the poet, Botticelli endeavours to express Dante's
awe and rapture on beholding the vision of beatific light, and hearing
the hymns of praise sung to Christ by glorified spirits.

XV
Dante and Beatrice in the sphere of Mars. Dante notes with ama
zement the apparition of a luminous form, which darts forward from out
the clustered spirits. It is the spirit of his ancestor, Cacciaguida. (Caccia-
guida tells the history of his own life, and of the Florence of his times.)

XVI
Dante and Beatrice in the sphere of Mars. A feeling of pride in his
ancestry rises in Dante's heart as he listens to Cacciaguida's tale. Beatrice,

PARADISO 75
smiling a gentle rebuke, stands somewhat apart. Botticelli has chosen
this episode for his text. (Cacciaguida continues his account of Florence
and her ancient clans.) XVII
Dante and Beatrice in the sphere of Mars. They continue to talk
with Cacciaguida. Dante longs to learn what his own future will be from
Cacciaguida. Beatrice encourages him to express his wish. (Cacciaguida
describes the future fate of Dante.)

XVIII
Dante and Beatrice ascend to the sixth sphere , that of Jupiter. The
half seen figures of Dante and Beatrice rising over the lower boundary
of the circle, by which the sixth sphere is denoted, illustrate the text
with great felicity: —
Vanquishing me with a beam
Of her soft smile, she spake: "Turn thee, and list.
These eyes are not thine only Paradise."
At the bottom of the page are the opening words of the canto,
partly cut off: — 1 8 gia si ghodeuaso . .
(Gia si godeva solo).

XIX
Dante and Beatrice in the sphere of Jupiter. (The flaming eagle
discourses to Dante of unjust rulers contemporary with the poet.)
This drawing is less finished than the last.

XX
Dante and Beatrice in the sphere of Jupiter. Dante listens to the
hymns of the blessed, and to the further speech of the flaming eagle.
Below are the opening words of the canto: —
quando cholui 20
(Quando colui).

76 PARADISO XXI
Dante and Beatrice ascend to the seventh heavenly sphere, that of
Saturn. Beatrice no longer smiles on Dante as before, for her loveliness,
increasing in each new sphere, is such as the poet's mortal eyes could
no longer bear to contemplate in its full intensity (V. 1-12). This is the
idea suggested by the artist in the earnest gravity of Beatrice's expression,
as she turns to Dante. The poet sees a ladder, so lofty that its top is
out of sight; upon its steps throng a multitude of shining spirits, flocking
and wheeling past each other "like crows at day-break". The spirits are
represented in the form of winged genii, fluttering in brilliant circles in
and out between the steps of the ladder. On the upper part of the ladder
the figure of Dante re -appears, floating on the arm of Beatrice, who
points upwards. This group, when nearly completed, was partially
erased, probably by the artist himself; enough remains, however, to
make the figures recognizable. There is no description of the ascent in
Canto XXI, but we may conclude that Botticelli intended to draw upon the
following canto for the enrichment of his design, and that he afterwards
abandoned the idea (cf. the corresponding illustration to Canto XXII).

XXII
The closing verses of Canto XXI relate how Dante is deafened by
a sudden shout.
The lower group in this drawing illustrates V. 1-7:
Astounded, to the guardian of my steps
I turn'd me, like the child, who always runs
Thither for succour, where he trusteth most.
And she was like the mother, who her son
Beholding pale and breathless, with her voice
Soothes him, and he is cheer'd; for thus she spake,
Soothing me: "Knowst thou not, thou art in Heaven?"
Beatrice explains the shout as a cry for vengeance, and draws
Dante after her up the ladder (V. 100-101). They ascend in rapid flight
to the eighth heaven, the sphere of the fixed stars. (Beatrice commands
Dante to look downward through the seven spheres, and estimate the
distance he has travelled from the earth, which moves him to a smile
by the insignificance of its appearance from that height.)

PARADISO 77
XXIII
Dante and Beatrice in the sphere of the fixed stars. Thousands
of blessed spirits circle round the light of Christ, who shines in their
midst like the sun at noon-day (V. 94 et seq). Botticelli has dwelt only
upon this, among the varied phenomena described by the poet. The
constellations of the Twins and the Bull are lightly sketched with the silver
point, under the feet of Dante and Beatrice (cf. Par. XXII, V. iio-iii).
XXIV
Dante and Beatrice in the sphere of the fixed stars. Christ shines
like the sun at noon -day. The souls of the blessed revolve round this
sun, from which they receive their light, as around a fixed pole (cf.
Par. XXIII). The drawing seems to refer more especially to the opening
verses of the canto, in which Beatrice begs the blessed spirits to satisfy
Dante's thirst for heavenly knowledge.
The glowing light which envelopes the soul of St. Peter hovers
over the heads of Dante and Beatrice. On it is inscribed the name:
"Piero". XXV
Dante and Beatrice in the sphere of the fixed stars. The holy fires
circle round Christ, the Sun. After St. Peter's colloquy with Dante,
another light detaches itself from the galaxy, and advances towards him.
This is St. James the Apostle. Beatrice addresses Dante (V. 17-18):
"Lo! lo! behold the peer of mickle might
That makes Galicia throng'd with visitants."
(Alluding to Compostella in Galicia, the shrine of St. James.) The com
position, is suggested by these lines.
Three flames, inscribed respectively "Piero", "Giovanni", "Jachopo",
hover over Dante's head. XXVI
Dante and Beatrice in the sphere of the fixed stars (cf. the last
drawing). Dante is so dazzled by the glory of St. John, that he loses
the power of sight for a while. The illustration, however, seems to deal,
not with this episode, but with the description in V. 70-76. Dante,

7g PARADISO
having concluded the speech in which he discourses of the effects of
man's love for God, recovers his sight.
And as a sleep is broken and dispersed
Through sharp encounter of the nimble light
With the eye's spirit running forth to meet
The ray, from membrane on to membrane urg'd,
And the upstartled wight loathes that he sees;
So, at his sudden waking, he misdeems
Of all around him, till assurance waits
On better judgment; thus the saintly dame
Drove from before mine eyes the motes away.
(Beatrice tells him that the fourth light, which now approaches him,
is Adam, the father of mankind.)
Over the heads of Dante and Beatrice are four lights, inscribed
respectively: "Piero", "Giovanni", "Jachopo", "Adamo".

XXVII
Dante and Beatrice linger in the heaven of the fixed stars. Peter
speaks with indignation of the actual state of the church.
The holy flames then vanish upwards. Beatrice exhorts Dante to
cast his eyes down once more, and note the distance he has travelled
since his last observation (Par. XXII). Dante sees the tract he has passed
over, and a portion of the earth illuminated by the sun. Dante and
Beatrice then ascend from the constellation Gemini (Castor and Pollux,
"Leda's children", V. 98), to the ninth, or highest heaven.

XXVIII
Dante and Beatrice in the ninth heaven (the Primum Mobile). Dante
sees a point of intense light, encompassed by nine successive rings of
flame , which circle swiftly round it , those nearest the central point being
the most brilliant. Beatrice explains the phenomenon; the nine circles
are the angelic orders, the central light is the divine essence. The
angels are divided into three hierarchies (one to each Person of the
Blessed Trinity); which hierarchies are subdivided each into three orders.
The hierarchy nearest to the divine essence consists of Cherubim, Sera
phim, and Thrones; these are succeeded by the second hierarchy, Domi-

PARADISO 79
nations, Virtues, and Powers; and finally, by the three inferior orders,
Principalities, Archangels, and Angels.
Botticelli, influenced, very probably, by the descriptions of the
hierarchies and orders given by Dante in the "Convito" (II 6), where
their titles differ somewhat from those assigned them in the Divina
Commedia, has attempted to distinguish them by various attributes. Thus,
his angels of the first hierarchy, which the "Convito" explains as typifying
the omnipotence of God the Father, are provided with rings (symbols of
the universe?), shields, and banners. In the second hierarchy, which
typifies the wisdom of the Saviour, Botticelli depicts the angels of the
first order with apples and rods in their hands, alluding, perhaps, to
Christ's dominion in the world. The attributes of the remaining orders
are less easily distinguishable. (The third hierarchy corresponds to the
gifts of the Holy Ghost.)
In the centre of the drawing we see Dante, lost in contemplation
of the angelic vision. Beatrice, standing beside him, points upwards.
One of the angels in the lowest circle holds a cartellino, on which
is inscribed in minute characters the name of the artist: Sandro di
Mariano. (Cf. p. 17.)
On the extreme edge of the sheet of vellum, to the right, the
names of the various orders are inscribed in Botticelli's own hand. When
the sheet was cut, the final letters of the words came away. The in
scription, as it now stands, is as follows. At the top, indicating the
seat of the Godhead, is the word trinit(a), then:
cherub(ini)serafi(ni)tron(i)domin(azioni)virtut(es) podest(adi)princ(ipati) arch (angeli)
ang(eli).

XXIX
Dante and Beatrice in the ninth, or highest sphere, the angelic
orders circling round the divine essence. Beatrice instructs Dante con
cerning the manner of creation, nature, and number of the angels.

80 PARADISO XXX
Dante and Beatrice ascend to the Empyrean, the heaven of pure
light. The drawing is based chiefly on V. 6 1 et seq. Dante sees a river
of light, the banks of which are radiant with miraculous flowers; "living
sparks", which the artist represents by winged genii, fly from the waters
of the stream, and dip into the cups of the flowers; then, as if drunk
with perfume, plunge again into the tide. As one sinks under the waves,
another rises. XXXI
No drawing to this canto. XXXII
At the close of the thirtieth canto, the poet's vision of the hosts of
the blessed under the figure of a heavenly rose of immeasurable size,
is described. Beatrice now leaves him, to take her place in the mystic
rose, and St. Bernard appears at Dante's side in her stead. The same
image governs the structure of the two final cantos. The design for
Canto XXXII, which was evidently destined to include a large number
of figures, was never completed. The only figures drawn with the pen
are the small sketches of Christ and the Virgin. The composition is
suggested by Par. XXXI, V. 115 et seq. . . . Search around
The circles to the furthest, till thou spy
Seated in state, the queen that of this realm
Is sov'ran.
The floating figure is probably meant for the Angel Gabriel. (V. 1 1 2
-H3-) The last two sheets are blank.

PLATES

The reproductions, with the exception of Plate XXXI Va in the Inferno series,
are exactly half the size of the originals.

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