Illustrations Archives

Farhad O’Neill, Divine Comedy-Inferno (1999)

April 7, 2022 By Professor Arielle Saiber

“I had first come into contact with the work of Dante Alighieri as a high school student in Canada. A senior’s English class had the Inferno included as part of their curriculum, and I was eager to read the masterwork, as some minor prior contact with the text had intrigued me greatly. I was not dissuaded by the inscription I saw above the vestibule:’“Abandon every hope, all ye who enter’! My interest in the fine arts guided my curiosity, and in time I was thrilled to discover the wealth of artists who had, in previous centuries, endeavoured to give a visual expression to that poet’s massive descriptive and symbolic structure.” […] Read more here.

Inferno Exhibition at Lisbon, Portugal (2021)

January 5, 2022 By Sephora Affa, FSU '24

“As a part of the celebrations of the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), this exhibition will present two drawings on parchment by Sandro Botticelli referring to the Divine Comedy’s Inferno, alongside two manuscripts by Jacopo della Lana and Boccaccio, courtesy of the Vatican Library.

“The exhibition will also feature a copy of Dante’s manuscript which once belonged to Frei Manuel do Cenáculo, currently property of the Portuguese National Library, works from the Calouste Gulbenkian’s collection and works by Rui Chafes which refer to Dante’s Inferno.” —Visit Lisboa

The 2021 exhibition was hosted by the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon. See their website here.

Gentlebrand Wine Features Illustrations of The Divine Comedy

December 31, 2021 By Sephora Affa, FSU '24

“Gentlebrand will mark the 700^th anniversary of Dante Alighieri’s death with a special edition wine range, called Curtai, which features illustrations on the packaging to take consumers on ‘a journey to discover The Divine Comedy.'”

“Curtai will include three different wines to symbolize the three realms visited in Dante’s infamous work – Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise – and acknowledge the number’s frequent presence in the author’s verses. The wines themselves are intended as a journey through the traditional tastes of wines local to the Friuli region in north-eastern Italy; the name Curtis is reportedly linked to the Friulian dialect.” [. . .] —Packaging Europe, December 2, 2021

Dante Traveling Exhibition, Athens (2021)

November 21, 2021 By Sephora Affa, FSU '24

“Athens is the second European city after Belgrade to host the show, titled ‘Dante Ipermoderno– Dante illustrated in the world, 1983-2021.’ After the Greek capital, the exhibition will travel to Prague, Moscow, London, and Madrid.

“Five internationally known illustrators took it upon themselves to depict the shocking images described by Dante in his monumental work The Divine Comedy: Paolo Barbieri, Monica Baisner, Domenico Palantino, Tom Phillips, and Emiliano Ponzi.” [. . .] —Ekathimerini, January 6, 2021

See more information about the art exhibit here.

Relatedly, see our posts about Paolo Barbieri here and Tom Phillips here.

Hexperos, “Midway Upon the Journey of Our Life” (2020)

November 14, 2021 By Sephora Affa, FSU '24

Hexperos’ 2020 release, “Midway Upon the Journey of Our Life” draws inspiration from Canto I of the Inferno.

“‘Midway upon the journey of our life, we could found ourselves within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost.’ Never there was a sentence more apt to describe the disturbance we all feel at some point of our lives, when we feel lost, empty and we don’t know if the road that we have chosen, the journey of life undertaken, is actually the right one for us.

“The songs are stories of life, of sharing as well as in the Divine Comedy. As a matter of fact, who is in pain, often makes new encounters, shares their stories, through sharing and listening to the experiences of others we grow, we find a light in the darkness.” [. . .] — Alessandra Santovito, Hexperos

Listen to the song here.

Learn more about Hexperos on their website, here.

Album art by Nicolás Menay

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