Sandro Botticelli "Map of Hell" ("Circles of Hell")

Marked not only by the life-affirming motives of "Spring". "Venus and Mars" and "The Birth of Venus", but also with gloomy, tragic moods. A good example of them is the drawing "Map of Hell" ( La mappa dell inferno).

There are several celebrated illustrated manuscripts of Dante's The Divine Comedy. Most remarkable in this respect is the splendid manuscript commissioned by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, with magnificent drawings by Sandro Botticelli. A series of drawings by Botticelli remained unfinished, but even in this form it can be recognized as the pinnacle of the art of book illustration of the Italian Quattrocento (XV century).

Botticelli's illustrations on the theme of Hell are especially striking. "Map of Hell" by Sandro Botticelli - a colored drawing on parchment depicting nine circles of the infernal abyss.

Sandro Botticelli. Map of Hell (Circles of Hell - La mappa dell inferno). Illustration for the "Divine Comedy" by Dante. 1480s

Dante described Hell as an abyss with nine circles, which, in turn, are divided into various rings. Botticelli on his "Map of Hell" presented the kingdom of sinners with such subtlety and accuracy that one can trace the individual stops that, according to the plot of the "Divine Comedy", Dante and Virgil made, descending to the center of the earth.

Below is another illustration by Sandro Botticelli for The Divine Comedy. This is a drawing for Canto 18 of Hell. The main characters, Dante and Virgil, are depicted here several times, as if traveling along the edge of an infernal abyss. They stand out for their quiveringly shining clothes. Following the gorges of Hell, they first see the souls of pimps and seducers tormented by demons, and then scammers and prostitutes who are doomed to suffer plunged into the mud.

Sandro Botticelli. Hell. Illustration for the "Divine Comedy" by Dante. 1480s

Here Botticelli presents Dante and his guide Virgil in the eighth circle of Hell, which consists of ten deep abysses where swindlers are punished.

Sandro Botticelli. Dante and Virgil in the eighth circle of Hell. Illustration for the "Divine Comedy" by Dante. 1480s

And here Botticelli painted the ancient giants who rebelled against the gods and were put in chains for this. They symbolize the brute force of nature, enclosed in hellish abysses.

Sandro Botticelli. Ancient giants in Hell. Illustration for the "Divine Comedy" by Dante. 1480s