In the early 14th century, Italian poet Dante Alighieri began work on his “Divina Commedia“, the Divine Comedy, which was comprised of three separate but interwoven tales: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The story follows Dante as he is walks through the afterlife with the Roman poet Virgil as his guide, starting on the night before Good Friday and culminating on the Wednesday after Easter, a trip that lasts approximately a week.

Hailed as one of the greatest works of literature throughout history, The Divine Comedy is known not only for its structure, its themes and motifs, and its characters but also for Alighieri’s wild and, at times, terrifying imagination. After all, the first portion of this story is entirely devoted to Dante’s journey’s through the Nine Circles of Hell, which ends in the 10th layer, where he sees the Lord of Darkness himself, Satan.

The Nine Circles of Hell are where the damned must suffer for their crimes, each layer hosting a different type of sinner. There is Limbo, where the souls of pagans and the unbaptized must remain for eternity; Lust, where offenders are trapped in a violent storm, ever spiraling and chaotic; the icy rainstorm of Gluttony; the ironically twisted fate of those guilty of Greed as they are cast into a pot of molten gold; a vicious war in a dark swamp in Anger; Heresy, where heretics burn endlessly; the horror of Violence, where those who lived a life of rage drown in a lake of boiling blood; Fraud, where souls are tortured at the hands of demons, who cast them into a dark pit; and last is Treachery, where those guilt are frozen from the waist down to be displayed as a monument of their offense.

The descriptions Dante wove with his words inspired and shaped artists, sculptors, writers, directors, video game developers, and more. His visions have sparked imaginations for centuries and I doubt that awe and fascination will cease any time soon.

Traveling forward a few hundred years to the mid-19th century, we meet Gustave Doré, a French artist, illustrator, and sculptor. One of his main mediums was wood-carved prints, a talent that would lock his work in the annals of history, forever appreciated.

Born in 1832, Doré was a prodigy in the world of art. By 15, he was working for the satirical paper “Le Journal pour rire” as a caricaturist, a job that got him exposure and led to commissions for various books. He was renowned for his work, becoming very successful in his craft and working until his death in Paris in 1883. Many of his illustrations can be seen in the works of Byron, Homer, and Goethe, and Shakespeare.

While Dante’s “Divina Commedia” had already been around for hundreds of years, its popularity quite obviously went through periods of interest and dismissal. It was in the mid-19th century in France that the poet’s works were once again finding audiences and it was due to this resurgence that Doré decided to create illustrations for the epic. However, he was unable to find anyone who would finance his works, so he took the unorthodox risk of illustrating and self-publishing Inferno in 1861. This release went on to become an instant success, one that brought Doré not only much acclaim but also an offer from Hachette and Co. for both Purgatorio and Paradiso.

Doré’s illustrations were so fascinating that there were even some who believed that the artist must have been in league with the Devil to have created such terrifying works of art.

“…we are inclined to believe that the conception and the interpretation come from the same source, that Dante and Gustave Doré are communicating by occult and solemn conversations the secret of this Hell plowed by their souls, traveled, explored by them in every sense. [Source]”

These illustrations, to this day, are what people think of when they envision Dante’s journeys. Dante’s words laid the foundation for Doré’s work and with the two combined you have a journey through the afterlife that has inspired and influenced more people than can ever be understood. Films like What Dreams May Come, Jacob’s Ladder, Seven, Hannibal and even Pandorum all owe a great deal to the French artist’s visual interpretation of Alighieri’s world.

Hell has a face and it was Gustave Doré that showed it to the world.

Editor’s note: I want to extend a special thanks to World of Dante. I highly encourage anyone interested by this post to spend some time there, as they are a wonderful resource and I couldn’t have done this post without them.