A Visual Depiction of Dantes Inferno

1
A Visual Depiction of Dantes Inferno

• Class project for Dr.Hales World Literature
  Course - Fall 1999 by Barbara Christopher

2
How to stay out of Hell

• The Law of contradiction is a basic principle of
  Aristotelian logic to repent of ones sin and to
  want to commit it at the same time is a
  self-contradiction.
• from Allen Mandelbaums Translation- Notes on
  Canto XXVIII
• image by Gustave Dore

3
The Inferno Hell

• Hell spiraling downward. Within each circle you
  find sinners being eternally punished for their
  sins.
• Image by Sandro Botticelli

4
The Inferno

• Hell has nine circles.
• Limbo
• Lust
• Gluttonous
• Wrathful Sullen
• Heretics
• Violent (includes 3 rings)
• Fraud (includes 10 pouches)
• Treachery (includes 4 rings)
• Lucifer
• Image by Barry Moser

5
The Inferno

• The layers of Hell from the inside looking down.
  The deeper you descend the more grievous the sin
  and the grotesque and offensive the punishment.
• Image by Bartolomeo

6
Canto ILost in the Dark Woods

• Dante, realizing he has strayed from a true path,
  finds himself lost in the woods.
• Image by Gustave Dore

7
Canto I Lost in the Dark Woods

• Lost and confronted by 3 beasts.
• Image by Sandro Botticelli

8
Canto III Gate to Hell

• William Blakes interpretation of Dante and
  Virgil readying themselves to enter the Gate to
  Hell.

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Canto III Inscription Over Gates of Hell

• Through me the way into the suffering city,
  through me the way to the eternal pain, through
  me the way that runs among the lost. Justice
  urged on my high artificer my maker was divine
  authority, the highest wisdom, and the primal
  love. Before me nothing but eternal things were
  made, and I endure eternally. ABANDON EVERY HOPE,
  WHO ENTER HERE.

10
Canto III The Ferryman Charon

• Charon crossing the Acheron River on his way to
  pick up shades who are going to meet their
  punishment.
• Image by Gustave Dore

11
Canto IV Virtuous PagansLimbo

• First Circle - Limbo These souls created no
  evil. They were good men who used reason to live
  by but because they were never baptized, they
  reside in an area in Hell called Limbo.
• Image by Gustave Dore

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Canto V

• The next four slides tell the story of Paolo and
  Francesca
• Upper Hell - The Lustful

13
Canto V Paolo and Francesca

• Paolo and Francesca reading the story of Sir
  Lancelot.
• Image by Anselm Feuerbach

14
Canto V Paolo and Francesca

• Overcome by passion, the book falls to the floor
  and they read no more.
• Image by Amos Cassioli

15
Canto VPaolo and Francesca

• Paolo and Francesca tossed violently by a wind
  storm as Virgil and Dante watch. Francesca tells
  Dante her story.
• Image by Ary Scheffer

16
Canto VPaolo and Francesca

• Image by Dante Rossetti

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Canto VIII The Wrathful and the Fallen Angels

• The fallen angels protecting the Wall of Dis.
• Image by Sandro Botticelli

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Canto X The Heretics

• Virgil guides Dante through the heated tombs of
  the Heretics.
• Image by Sandro Botticelli

19
Canto XIII The Violent against Themselves

• The woods of the suicides. In life, they had no
  desire to be human, in Hell they are deprived of
  their human form.
• Image by Federico Zuccari

20
Canto XVIII The Panders, Seducers and the
Flatters

• Image by Sandro Botticelli

21
Canto XIX Simoniacs

• Image by Sandro Botticello

22
Canto XX The Fortune Tellers and Diviners

• Because they tried to see so far into the future,
  Fortune Tellers and Diviners heads have been
  twisted so they they all face backward.
• Image by Sandro Botticelli

23
Canto XXIII The Hypocrites

• The Hypocrites in their hooded capes, gilded on
  the outside but heavily lined in lead.
• Image by Sandro Botticello

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Cantos XXIV Thieves

• Image by Sandro Botticello

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Canto XXIV Punishment of Thieves

• Naked humans in the pit of snakes.
• Image by William Blake

26
Canto XXVIEvil Counselors

• Evil and fraudulent counselors cloaked in
  flames.
• Image by Sandro Botticello

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Canto XXVIII Sowers of Scandal

• Sowers of discord and scandal perpetually
  circling while demons wound them. When their
  wounds heal they are wounded again just as rumor
  wounds again as it circles around.
• Image by Sandro Botticello

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Canto XXIX The Falsifiers

• Falsifiers live in a pit of disease that smells
  of festering and rotting limbs.
• Image by Sandro Botticello

29
Canto XXIX The Falsifiers

• The pit of disease - notice how Virgil and Dante
  cover their noses to try to avoid the smell.
• image by William Blake

30
Canto XXXII Traitors to Kin

• Immersed in the frozen lake of Cocytus with heads
  bent down.
• Image by Gustave Dore

31
Canto XXXIV Lucifer

• Lucifer with 3 heads gnawing on sinners.
• Image by Sandro Botticello

32
Canto XXXIV Lucifer

• Lucifer with large bat type wings in the frozen
  lake of Cocytus.
• image by Gustave Dore

33
The Inferno

• Virgil guides Dante out of Hell using Lucifers
  hair stairs and It was from there that we
  emerged to see - once more the stars.