The Divine Comedy

Dante's masterpiece of literature is well matched by the peerless art of Gustave Doré. Dante and his guides, Virgil and Beatrice, journey through the cantos in an allegory of the passage of the soul through the Afterlife, with the subtle engraving of Doré's illustrations perfectly complementing the movement from darkness through to light.

Dante Alighieri (c. 1265–1321) was a prolific poet from Florence, Italy. Renowned for his epic poem The Divine Comedy, he is regarded as one of the central figures of Medieval European literature. His vivid descriptions established him as the ‘Father’ of the modern Italian language, as he eschewed Latin in favour of the vernacular Tuscan dialect.