Celebrated around the world as a literary monument,
The Divine Comedy,
completed in 1321 and written by
Dante Alighieri
(1265–1321), is widely
considered the greatest work ever composed in the Italian language
. The epic poem describes Dante’s journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven, representing, on a deeper level, the soul’s path towards salvation.
In the last few years of his life, Romantic poet and artist
William Blake
(1757–1827) produced
102 illustrations for Dante’s masterwork
, from pencil sketches to finished watercolors. Like Dante’s sweeping poem, Blake’s drawings range from scenes of infernal suffering to celestial light, from horrifying human disfigurement to the perfection of physical form. While faithful to the text, Blake also brought his own perspective to some of Dante’s central themes.
Today, Blake’s illustrations, left in various stages of completion at the time of his death, are dispersed among seven different institutions. This TASCHEN edition brings these works together again, alongside
key excerpts from Dante’s masterpiece
. Two introductory essays consider Dante and Blake, as well as other major artists who have been inspired by
The Divine Comedy
, including Sandro Botticelli, Michelangelo, Eugène Delacroix, Gustave Doré, and Auguste Rodin.
With
an intimate reading of Blake’s illustrations, and many close-ups
to allow the most delicate of details to dazzle, this is a breathtaking encounter with
two of the finest artistic talents in history
, as well as with such
universal themes as love, guilt, punishment, revenge, and redemption
.