Dante's Inferno and Influence on the Proto-Renaissance 🔥🔥🔥
#dantesinferno #arthistory
Hi friends! I finished a book the other day that was incredibly relevant to my art history research for Art Bites! Dante's Inferno wasn't really enjoyable for me, but I'm glad I read it because it gave me more context and insight into the proto-renaissance period in Italy!
Today we are going to be talking about some more proto-renaissance art, but we’re going to be talking about art that was motivated by a famous Florentine Poet, Dante Alighieri.
Dante wrote the famous Divine Comedy that includes Inferno. In Inferno, Dante is guided by a divine guide through all layers of hell. Each layer houses specific evil doers like heretics and those who have committed fraud. There are all sorts of different kinds of torture that these people go through. I didn't understand half of it, but I'm sure it was pretty bad LOL look at me admitting how uncultured I am. Ya'll, I've read a lot of difficult books in my life but this one had difficult language and also the motivation to keep reading it was dwindling with every page. I'm sure its a great book and I'm not saying its a horrible book. I'm just saying that I am not a good fit for it 😬😬😬😬
Nevertheless his writings played a crucial role in how his culture saw life after death. Inferno is one of three poems in the Divine Comedy. The others are Paradiso and Purgatorio.
Anyway, so the artists at the time wanted to put visual expression to Dante’s thoughts since the poem is apparently incredibly vivid and vibrant. One artist depicted satan in the last judgement on the ceiling of the Florence Baptistry which is interesting that an artist would put satan in a baptistry. Especially this depiction of him eating people.
One artist actually illustrated Inferno and created illustrations for every canto of the comedy. His name was Sandro Botticelli and he was a friend of Lorenzo de’Medici who was part of the richest family in Florence at that time. 92 of Botticelli’s illustrations survive.
So in the video we will go through one of his illustrations which is ink on parchment and it is depicting the heretics in their layer of hell. Dante is in red and Virgil his guide is in blue and they are walking beside all of these tombs of heretics. The heretics are those who didn’t believe in the trinity and those who are motivated only by life’s material pleasures. He also names people and politicians in his book and he finds them in Hell which I think is hilarious.
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this video! Make sure to subscribe for more art history and art content!