Alessandro Botticelli is one of Italy's greatest artists. Most people remember him as a representative of the Early Renaissance, famous for its light paintings depicting young men and women of heavenly beauty. However, he also had gloomy religious paintings. He was interested in the most terrible plot in Christian theology - Hell. Botticelli, whose painting on this subject is currently in the Vatican Library of Rome, finished writing it in 1480.
Its full name is "The Abyss of Hell." It was created by the artist as an illustration for the "Divine Comedy" of his great compatriot.
"Hell" Botticelli - a picture-illustration to Dante
Giorgio Vasari, who gives us a lot of information about the biographies of various artists, writes about the period in which the painter became interested in such topics, the following. Alessandro was very famous for his work, and was invited by the Pope to Rome. There he earned a lot of money, but having a habit of a fun and carefree life, he spent almost all of them and was forced to return home. In this regard, the artist was filled with thoughtfulness and became interested in reading Dante. He made several drawings illustrating the great work of the latter - "The Divine Comedy."
At this time he did not work for money, and thus became even poorer. “Hell” Botticelli illustrated along with other parts of this work - “Paradise” and “Purgatory”. Something like this can describe the history of the creation of this drawing.
Botticelli's painting "Hell" - a kind of "map of the area"
It is known that the artist is the author of several paintings based on the famous work of the harsh Florentine. However, it is this colored drawing on parchment that is known more than others, because it is a kind of “hell map”. After all, Dante in his book described not only sins and terrible torment, to which those who committed them were condemned. He created a kind of topography of Hell. According to the poet, the underworld consists of eight circles, and the underground river Acheron flows along the perimeter of the first of them. Streams flowing into the fifth circle flow from it - the swamps of Stygia, where angry people are punished. Then it turns into the bloody river Flegeton, and in the ninth circle - with traitors - a waterfall falls into the center of the earth and freezes. This icy abyss is called Kotsit. This is what Hell looks like. Botticelli, whose picture is actually a map of the underworld of Dante, is trying to accurately follow the poet's word.
The circles of Hell described by the Florentine visionary are narrowing. Therefore, his underworld is a kind of funnel placed on the tip. He abuts against the center of the earth, where Lucifer is imprisoned. As the author says, the deeper the hell, the narrower the circle, the more terrible the created sin. The most terrible criminals, according to Dante, are traitors. The artist depicts in sufficient detail and thoroughly all the places listed by the poet where sinners languish and suffer. Other drawings, like icon paintings of earlier times, show how Virgil and
Dante is visited by one or the other circle, and all of them, listed in the poem, stop.
Contemporary art and the work of the artist
Interestingly, this map, created by the painter, became very popular in the twentieth century. For example, the famous novelist Dan Brown, the author of the acclaimed "Da Vinci Code", wrote another bestseller - "Inferno" (Hell). Botticelli, whose picture appears in this book as a kind of cipher, is made with the light hand of the author, a prophet. Like, in his "map" the way to "realize" a certain modified version of the underworld here and now is indicated. However, this novel, in spite of all its fantasticness, made many admirers of Brown carefully examine the drawing of the great Botticelli.