Agnolo Bronzino and His Dante Facing Purgatoryĭante Alighieri is seated on a boulder facing left and holding, in the direction of the viewer, a large volume with open pages referring to the Canto XXV of Paradise. He is part of a council in which we can see theologians, Doctors of the Church, and popes, but also philanthropists, writers, and simple anonymous believers.Ĥ. Wikimedia Commons.Įven though not all the characters have been identified, a portrait of Dante Alighieri is found in the lower section, towards the right. Raphael, Dante’s portrait in Disputa del Sacramento, 1505, Vatican Museums, Vatican. On its most comprehensive level, it may be read as an allegory, taking the form of a journey through the Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Paradise). On its most personal level, it draws on Dante’s own experience of exile from his native city of Florence. He is best known for his monumental epic poem La Commedia, later renamed by Giovanni Boccaccio to La Divina Commedia – The Divine Comedy.ĭante’s Divine Comedy, a landmark in Italian literature and among the greatest works of all medieval European literature, is a profound Christian vision of humankind’s temporal and eternal destiny. The Italians called him Il Sommo Poeta which could be translated in English as “The Supreme Poet”. For those who haven’t had a chance to learn about Dante yet, his full name was Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) and he was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. Those who already know Dante and his Divine Comedy can skip this introduction and go directly to the artworks. Andrea del Castagno, Dante Alighieri, 1450, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy.

Dante alighieri la commedia