Sandro Botticelli
Illustrations for Dante’s Divine Comedy
History
Sandro Botticelli’s illustrations for Dante’s Divine Comedy were split up into several parts and have had a very chequered history. Of the original 100 drawings, lost until the 17th century, only 92 have so far been found.
A first part, consisting of the illustrations for Cantos I, VIII, IX, X, XII, XIII, XV and XVI of Hell, were found in the Vatican Library, with a composition on a header sheet depicting the set of circles of Hell. These 9 drawings were in a volume of miscellanies that had been in Christine of Sweden’s collection of manuscript. Today, they are preserved at the Vatican, in the oldest and least-accessible library in the world.
A second part, comprising 83 drawings, was identified at a Paris bookseller's in the 19th century. It the passed through the hands of the Duke of Hamilton, before being bought in 1882 by the King of Prussia’s curator for the Berlin Royal Drawing & Print Collection. After WWII, this part was split up and preserved in 2 different museums, because of the building of the Berlin Wall. Since 1993, the 83 drawings have been reunited and are preserved in Berlin’s prestigious Drawing & Print Collection.
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Hell (Inferno)
Purgatory (Purgatorio)
Paradise (Paradiso)
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