Botticelli circles of hell high resolution. Hell by Sandro Botticelli (1480s)
gjanna wrote a book review
Dante Alighieri The Divine Comedy
Well, there is enmity all around, brutal executions, plague and other delights of the Middle Ages, so that Dante’s harsh hell, apparently, could be seen by any resident of Florence, Naples or, for example, Bremen. Speaking of "see you". Surely you heard what Dante's contemporaries said: " great poet I probably saw hell with my own eyes, since I described it very vividly in every detail." Believe me, hell really breathes on the reader with fire, then ice, or boiling... uh... various liquids. Sinners cover their faces with their feet ; they cry, and their tears flow down between their buttocks, because their anatomy has been slightly damaged from being in this glorious place; harlots, boiling in excrement, tear themselves to blood, apparently so that life does not seem like raspberries to them. Get bored while you read "Hell" will definitely not be necessary. Dante's contemporaries drew maps of his hell, interpreted his poems. By the way, in the walks of Alighieri and Virgil, who acts as a guide, sinners are periodically encountered, pouring out predictions. I don’t know if they came true, since it’s very they are closely tied to Dante's contemporaries about whom, to be honest, I have not heard anything.If Dante in this way took revenge on his enemies who expelled him from Florence, he was a cruel guy.
So, HELL. In order to leave myself a kind of small cheat sheet-guide, I found such a diagram on the Internet. In case someone else finds it useful...
Dante's Inferno
You can try to find a place for yourself, for example, I’m confused and will tell you about my location when I get there.
But now the cruel and colorful hell is over and after meeting Lucifer, chewing Brutus and Judas, we find ourselves in Purgatory, and then in Paradise. It’s a pity, but heaven is not at all so voluminous and, having read “The Divine Comedy” to the end, I absolutely cannot remember anything bright and pleasant. For some reason Dante believed that:
Like the shores, the rotating firmament of the moon
Hides and reveals tirelessly,
So fate has power over Florence.
So it can't sound weird
About noble Florentines my speech,
Even though their memory is foggy in time.
The memory of them in time is so foggy that Filippi, Ugi, Grechi for modern reader, for the most part, just Italian surnames and nothing more. So most of Raya transits from the eyes to space without lingering in consciousness. And, of course, Beatrice. The girl whom Dante loved in his youth meets him in purgatory and takes him higher and higher, to paradise. Interestingly, Dante was married, he had children, but not a single sonnet, not a single stanza of the Divine Comedy is dedicated to his wife. Beatrice is so beautiful that her bright face overshadows the delights of heaven. Oh, this idealism, when it is no longer possible to be disappointed in the subject of idealization!
“The Divine Comedy” has been read, and now Boccaccio sparkling with humor and invention awaits me, who, by the way, was a contemporary of Dante and these two, so different, judging by their works, the creator, corresponded despite the significant difference in age.
1 lap. Limbo
The first circle of Hell is Limbo, where the souls of those who have not committed unrighteous acts but died without baptism reside. They are doomed to painless grief. Unbaptized infants of ancient philosophers and poets (Virgil) live in Limbo; Noah, Moses and Abraham were also here - all the righteous men mentioned in Old Testament, - but then they were allowed to ascend to Paradise.
Guardian: Charon.
Punishment: Sorrow without pain.
2nd circle Voluptuousness, lust
At the entrance, travelers are met by King Minos (a fair judge and father of the Minotaur), who distributes souls in circles. Here everything is covered in darkness and a storm is constantly raging - gusts of wind throw the souls of those who were pushed onto the path of sin by love. If you coveted someone else's wife or husband, lived in debauchery - your soul will float restless over the abyss forever.
Guardian: Minos.
Punishment: Torsion and torment by a hurricane, blows of souls against the rocks of the underworld
3 circle. Gluttony
Gluttons are imprisoned in this circle: icy rain always pours here, souls get stuck in dirty slurry, and the demon Cerberus gnaws the prisoners who fall under the clawed paw.
Guardian: Cerberus.
Punishment: Rotting in the rain and hail
4 circle. Greed
The abode of those who “spent and hoarded unworthily,” a gigantic plain on which stand two crowds. Their souls drag huge weights from place to place, and when they collide with each other, they engage in a fierce battle.
Guardian: Plutos.
Punishment: eternal dispute.
5 lap. Anger and boredom (despondency, laziness)
An eternal fight in the dirty swamp of Styx, where the bottom is the bodies of the bored. All circles up to the 5th are a haven for the intemperate, and intemperance is considered a lesser sin than “malice or violent bestiality,” and therefore the suffering of souls there is alleviated compared to those who live in the outer circles.
Guard: Phlegius.
Punishment: eternal fight up to your neck in the swamp.
6th circle For heretics and false teachers
The burning city of Ditus (the Romans called Hades, the god underground kingdom), which is guarded by the Furies sisters with balls of snakes instead of hair. Inescapable sorrow reigns here, and heretics and false teachers rest in open tombs, as if in eternal ovens. The tombstone is open, a fire is burning inside the grave - it heats the walls of the tomb to redness. The transition to the 7th circle is fenced off by a fetid abyss.
Guardians: Furies.
Punishment: Be a ghost in a hot grave.
7th circle For rapists and murderers of all stripes
This circle is divided into three belts.
In the first - rapists against their neighbors and their property (tyrants and robbers), they are destined to boil in a ditch of hot blood.
In the second - rapists against themselves (suicides) and against their property (gamblers and spendthrifts, that is, senseless destroyers of their property). Suicides in the form of trees are tormented by harpies, spendthrifts are driven away by hound dogs.
In the third - rapists against deity (blasphemers), against nature (sodomites) and art (covetous people). They are destined to languish in a barren desert, where fire rains from the sky.
Guardian: Minotaur.
8 circle. For those who deceived and did not trust
The haven of pimps and seducers consists of 10 ditches (Zlopazuchi, Evil Crevices), in the center of which lies the most terrible - the 9th - circle of Hell. Soothsayers, fortune-tellers, witches, bribe-takers, hypocrites, flatterers, thieves, alchemists, false witnesses and counterfeiters are tormented nearby. Priests who traded in church positions fall into this same circle.
Guardian: Geryon.
Punishment: sinners walk in two oncoming streams, scourged by demons, stuck in fetid feces, some of their bodies are chained in rocks, fire flows down their feet. Someone is boiling in the tar, and if he sticks out, the devils stick the hooks. Those clad in lead robes are placed on a red-hot brazier, sinners are gutted and tormented by vermin, leprosy and lichen.
9 circle. Those who deceived those who trusted
In the very center of the Underworld is the icy Lake Cocytus. It's like Viking hell, it's incredibly cold here. Here lie the apostates frozen in the ice, and the main one of them is Lucifer, fallen Angel. Judas Iscariot (who betrayed Christ), Brutus (who betrayed the trust of Julius Caesar) and Cassius (also a participant in the conspiracy against Caesar) are tormented in the three jaws of Lucifer.
The same fate awaits traitors to relatives, traitors to the homeland and like-minded people, traitors to guests, friends and companions, traitors to benefactors, the majesty of God and man.
Guardians: giants Briareus, Ephialtes, Antaeus.
Punishment: Eternal torment in an icy lake.
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Mar. 5, 2016
02:09 pm - MORE HELL. Who to look for in Botticelli's illustration for The Divine Comedy
The illustration is based on a still from the television film De Goddelijke Komedie van Dante en Inferno van Dan Brown, 2013
We descend into the depths of Dante's hell and review the habits and entertainments of its inhabitants.
So, what to do in Botticelli's hell?
Artist Early Renaissance Sandro Botticelli (1440–1510) is known primarily for his radiant portraits of unidentified young people, very reminiscent of modern model tests, and only then for his ponderous canvases on religious theme. In one of these paintings, Botticelli depicted the structure of Dante's hell. Let's try to take a quick look around this detailed universe without resorting to art-historical gibberish.
The artist completed this work in 1480. IN currently it is kept in the Vatican Library
Why it will be easy for you to understand Botticelli
1. “Hell” was created as a penance, but not in a high sense. In fact, the artist had a cheerful disposition; he liked to write most of all. beautiful girls and boys. But precisely in deep hell turned out to be Botticelli, having spent all the money he earned in the service of the Pope on excesses and superficial hobbies. I had to return home, read Dante, and think a lot.
2. The picture became especially popular in the 21st century, when the pop fiction writer Dan Brown made “Hell” a cipher in his next bestseller about ancient ciphers “Inferno”. So the illustration for one book became the hero of another.
3. Of all the Western concepts of hell, it is this Mediterranean version that is closest to ours cultural code. Here, of course, there is something alien Orthodox person Purgatory, but the punishments and torment of sinners are already depicted in detail, which was not in earlier versions, and which is not very clearly depicted in the deserted and endlessly dull Mephistophelian hell. Plus, it's funnel shaped!
4. The artist pays special attention to the punishment of corrupt officials. They are tormented in the eighth circle by unpleasant entities with spears, who, by the way, are also doomed to eternal torment in this place. Here everyone is equal: both high-ranking former laymen and, in fact, the devils also suffer. Simply because they are devils.
5. Botticelli’s “Hell” is essentially a comic book. And his main characters are himself and the poet Virgil. They, elegant, are depicted many times, like in a cartoon. Their visions are typical of creative people and tough guys in general: the journey begins with the spectacle of the demon-tormented souls of pimps, informers, opportunists and prostitutes wallowing in the mud.
Circle First. Limbo
What also gathered here were not baptized infants, pagans and lovers of the latest religious movements, but also ancient poets and thinkers: Homer, Plato, Socrates. The Old Testament righteous Noah and Abraham waited here for their turn in Paradise.
Circle Two. Voluptuousness
Those who have sinned in the name of love or confused it with banal lust have gathered here. The souls of sinners are twisted by gusts of wind, like in a centrifuge. Everyone is sick.
Circle Three. Gluttony
The gluttons rot here in the snow and rain, pondering their behavior. But all to no avail - Cerberus comes and eats the loaded sinners.
Circle Four. Greed
The souls of greedy people are busy with meaningless work: two crowds of sinners are pushing heavy loads in front of them, moving towards each other. They collide and then separate to start all over again.
Circle Five. Anger and laziness
IN Lately You can justify your incontinence and promiscuity with increased emotionality. Those who did this, in Dante's hell, will forever fight with their own kind in an endless swamp.
Circle Six. Heretics and pseudo-gurus
Furies fly everywhere here. They watch over false teachers and prophets who, crushed by inescapable sorrow, lie motionless in open tombs.
Circle Seven. Murderers
Criminal souls of all stripes, who committed violent crimes during their lifetime, eternally suffer under the fiery rain and boil in a bloody river. From time to time, hungry dogs and harpies are involved in the execution of punishments.
Circle Eight. Crooks and thieves
“Sinners walk in two opposing streams, scourged by demons, stuck in fetid feces, some of their bodies are chained in rocks, fire streams down their feet. Someone is boiling in the tar, and if he sticks out, the devils stick the hooks. Those clad in lead robes are placed on a red-hot brazier, sinners are gutted and tormented by vermin, leprosy and lichen.” Exhaustive.
Circle Ninth. Traitors and apostates
This is the lowest circle, encased in ice. This is an unbearable minus. All famous traitors like Brutus and Judas are endlessly chewed by Lucifer himself.
He languishes on the lowest floor.
The theme of the circles of hell was already developed by artists, composers, and directors of the 20th century. Many video game fans know that there is a game called Dante: Inferno. And in 2010, a fantasy cartoon based on the book by D. Alighieri was even published.
9 circles of hell: Dante's Divine Comedy
The famous singer and probably the first science fiction writer, Dante, depicted the 9 circles of hell in The Divine Comedy as a huge funnel. The more serious the sin more people suffered from a sinful person, the deeper into the funnel of the earthly underworld will be lowered by King Minos, who meets the deceased on the 2nd circle. The poet Dante described the 9 circles of hell as a place where on each “floor” the souls of the dead serve hard labor. The poem was written in dark ages, when the human mind was fettered by the fear of purgatory.
Dante worked on the poem for a long time - from 1307 to 1321. That is, the poem has been glorifying the name of this man for more than 700 years. For literature, this is an excellent example of medieval poetry. The entire poem is written in terzas, with a stylistic charm unprecedented for those times.
The poet describes all these circles of hell as very dark and cruel, as only a person who lived in the era of Catholic despotism could imagine. For a general idea, we will describe all 9 circles, as they are depicted in the original source - the poem “The Divine Comedy”.
Description of the first 5 circles of hell
In limbo (1st circle), Dante “settled” poets and scientists of antiquity who were not baptized. So, in essence, their souls belong neither to the lower world nor to the higher one. In this place, the human soul experiences sorrow, but there is no bodily torment, writes Dante.
On the 2nd circle, souls are already tormented. They are tormented by gusts of wind. How on earth they were restless and sought pleasure in voluptuousness, and not in spiritual world, and here they will forever be tormented by an unprecedented storm.
The next circle is the afterlife haven of gluttons and gourmets. They are doomed to rot under the constant and nasty rain. Next comes greed. This sin is punished by the fact that the soul of the miser is obliged to drag weights on his back forever and fight with other souls who drag the same bales towards him.
The last circle of less serious sins associated with incontinence and craving for material things is a circle for the souls of angry, lazy or despondent people.
Circles of hell for the most terrible torments
The most terrible sins, according to the writer, is violence, deception, extravagance, hypocrisy and betrayal. Circle 6 is for false teachers who have directed human minds to lies for their own benefit. In all the “open spaces” of the 7th tier, rapists are tormented. And the 8th and 9th circles are for the most “refined” hypocrites, heretics, pimps and seducers. As well as trading priests and alchemists. It is these sins that Dante condemns, and for such souls eternal hard labor in the 9th circle is most terrible.
On the very last circle, in the center, there is a fallen angel frozen into a lake with the ancient name Cocytus. Such people are doomed to be tortured in his teeth historical figures, like Judas, as well as those who betrayed Caesar, Marcus Brutus and Gaius Cassius.
Dante Alighieri describes the 9 circles of hell as truly terrifying and unusual.
Who inspired Dante?
Like every writer, Dante had his own muse. A girl named Bice (the genius himself later gave her the name Beatrice) inspired the talented young man with just her existence. He was so selflessly and for a long time devoted with all his thoughts to only one lady of his heart that his greatest work, like his other poetry, was written in her honor.
Many masters of the brush depicted this girl with the poet. The artist Holiday Henry painted the painting “Dante and Beatrice” (year of painting - 1883).
To the great Florentine Dante from the great Florentine Botticelli, commissioned by a wealthy Florentine Lorenzo Medici. The “Divine Comedy” of the first inspired the second to create dozens of manuscripts with the money of the third, in more detail illustrating a 14th-century literary masterpiece. Most Interest evokes a kind of infographic of Hell - a map, following which the heroes of the “Divine Comedy” can be seen in detail the torment to which sinners are subjected. The spectacle is not for the faint of heart.
Plot
Botticelli depicted Hell as a funnel. Unbaptized infants and virtuous non-Christians in limbo are given over to painless grief; voluptuous people who fall into the second circle for lust suffer torment and torment by a hurricane; gluttons in the third circle rot in the rain and hail; misers and spendthrifts drag weights from place to place in the fourth circle; the angry and lazy always fight in the swamps of the fifth circle; heretics and false prophets lie in the burning graves of the sixth; all kinds of rapists, depending on the subject of the abuse, suffer in different zones of the seventh circle - boil in a ditch of hot blood, tormented by harpies or languish in the desert under the fiery rain; deceivers of those who did not trust languish in the cracks of the eighth circle: some are stuck in fetid feces, some are boiling in tar, some are chained, some are tormented by reptiles, some are gutted; and the ninth circle is prepared for those who deceived. Among the latter is Lucifer, frozen in ice, who torments in his three mouths the traitors of the majesty of the earth and heaven (Judas, Marcus Junius Brutus and Cassius - traitors of Jesus and Caesar, respectively).
Here you can see in detail the torment of sinners. The emotions and feelings of each character are written out in detail
The map of Hell was part of a large commission - the illustration of Dante's Divine Comedy. Unknown exact dates creation of manuscripts. Researchers agree that Botticelli began working on them in the mid-1480s and, with some interruptions, was busy with them until the death of the customer, Lorenzo the Magnificent de' Medici.
Not all pages have been preserved. Presumably, there should be about 100 of them; 92 manuscripts have reached us, four of which are fully colored. Several pages of text or numbers are blank, suggesting that Botticelli did not complete the work. Most are sketches. At that time, paper was expensive, and the artist could not simply throw away a sheet of paper with a failed sketch. Therefore, Botticelli first worked with a silver needle, squeezing out the design. Some manuscripts show how the design changed: from the composition as a whole to the position of individual figures. Only when the artist was satisfied with the sketch did he trace the outlines in ink.
On the reverse side of each illustration, Botticelli indicated Dante's text, which explained the drawing.
Context
"The Divine Comedy" is a kind of response to Dante's events own life. Having failed in political struggle in Florence and being expelled from hometown, he devoted himself to enlightenment and self-education, including the study of ancient authors. It is no coincidence that the guide in The Divine Comedy is Virgil, the ancient Roman poet.
The dark forest in which the hero got lost is a metaphor for the poet’s sins and quests. Virgil (reason) saves the hero (Dante) from terrible beasts (mortal sins) and leads him through Hell to Purgatory, after which he gives way to Beatrice (divine grace) on the threshold of heaven. 
The fate of the artist
Botticelli was from a family of goldsmiths and had to deal with gold and other precious metals. However, the boy liked sketching and drawing much more. Immersed in a world of fantasy, Sandro forgot about his surroundings. He turned life into art, and art became life for him.
"Spring" by Botticelli, 1482
Among his contemporaries, Botticelli was not perceived as a master of genius. Yes, good artist. But that was the period when many people worked, who later became famous masters. For the 15th century, Sandro Botticelli was a reliable master who could be entrusted with painting frescoes or illustrating books, but not a genius.
“The Birth of Venus” by Botticelli, 1484−1486
Botticelli was patronized by the Medici, famous art connoisseurs. It is believed that while the painter last years spent his life almost in poverty. however, there is evidence that Botticelli was not as poor as he wanted to appear. Nevertheless, he had neither his own home nor his family. The very idea of marriage frightened him.
After meeting the monk Girolamo Savonarola, who in his sermons convincingly called for repentance and renunciation of the delights of earthly life, Botticelli completely fell into asceticism. The artist died at the age of 66 in Florence, where his ashes still rest today in the cemetery of the Church of All Saints.