The Inferno of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy depicts pairings of sin and punishment according to Dante’s perception of God’s divine plan. Sinners in the Inferno are punished by their severity of their sin, with punishments which are poetically contrasted against the sin itself. Specific sins are paired with specific punishments. The more grievous the sin, the more intense the punishment, and the further down in the circles of hell. In the cosmology of Dante, the sinners who strayed further from God’s light find themselves literally further from God’s light the deeper they are in hell, in it of itself a poetic example of contrapasso. One of the most evident figures but simultaneously the most silent in Inferno is also one of the best examples of the idea of contrapasso: Lucifer, or Satan. The king of hell, Lucifer wallows in the lowest circle of hell, farthest from God’s light, punished forever as a castaway of God’s divine plan. Dante illustrates the contrapasso of Lucifer as a poetic doom to Lucifer’s betrayal of God. His interpretation of Lucifer’s punishment has been complimented by many artists, whose interpretations of the Inferno illustrate different ideas and concepts of Lucifer’s punishment. Two very good examples are Henry John Stock’s Dante and Virgil Encounter Lucifer in Hell 1923 Giclee Print, and more recently, Michael Mazur’s The Inferno of Dante: Canto XXXIV (The Guidecca—Lucifer) 1996-2000 etching. Both pieces touch upon aspects of Lucifer’s contrapasso, and represent the king of hell in very different ways. Ultimately, as pieces based on the same source material, both works represent the same idea behind Lucifer’s contrapasso, but their differences highlight important aspects of his punishment.

Through cruel and melancholy examples in Inferno and Purgatorio, Dante expresses the construction of God’s divine plan, and the idea that the punishment must fit the crime through contrapasso. Dante takes many creative and poetic liberties to express the punishments in hell as mechanisms in God’s will. In Justin Steinberg’s essay “Dante’s Justice? A Reappraisal of the Contrapasso,” Steinberg illustrates many examples of contrapasso throughout inferno. He describes how the manner in which the damned are punished for their sins is a symbolic relationship which depicts the one central rule and theme of Inferno. While Steinberg’s essay makes a case against the use of the term “contrapasso” to simply summate Dante’s justice, his paper nonetheless illustrates effectively the theme of contrapasso, and the many examples of it throughout Inferno. The idea of contrapasso is a main focal point of the Inferno, and Steinberg’s examples reinforce this idea.

As Steinberg puts it, “the damned are tormented by manifestations of their own externalized psychological states.” (Steinberg pg. 59) And goes on to cite the example of Francesca and Paolo. Sinners of the second circle of hell, Lust, Francesca and Paolo are described by Dante in Canto 5 to be caught in “the infernal whirlwind, which never rests, driv[ing] spirits before its violence; turning and striking, it tortures them.” (Dante 5.31-33, pg. 89) On earth the two were blown about by their own desires for each other, and subsequently in hell are doomed to be blown about physically, a state of turmoil which matched their own psychological states on Earth. Other examples throughout Inferno similarly illustrate this concept. The clarification here is important, as the idea of matching psychological decision-making processes (will) and the state of the body in hell is an important idea to compare in the punishment of Lucifer.

Before analyzing the contrapasso of Lucifer, another important example needs to be made. In addition to the contrapasso described by Steinberg as a manifestation of internal psychological states portrayed through the circles of hell, the actual alignment with sin as a component of contrapasso needs to be considered. Steinberg’s description of contrapasso as a manifestation of psychological states is an accurate analysis of the punishments in Inferno, but the additional consideration of the sin itself as an act against God must also be taken into account. A perfect example is found later in the Inferno, Canto 13. In the seventh circle, second ring, those who were violent against themselves rot eternally in the poisoned wood, where their souls inhabit the trees in which harpies make their nests. The most prominent figure in Canto 13 is Pier della Vigna, a chancellor to Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor. Pier took his own life because of political accusations and his own imprisonment. His punishment in Inferno is as Steinberg describes it, a reflection of his own psychological state on Earth. After committing suicide, his spirit is doomed to inhabit a tree, a lower form of life even considered below animals. But more importantly, Pier illustrates the relationship between sin and God through his punishment. His contrapasso is an example of a soul who took a gift from god and rejected its quality, and for this act against God, he is punished poetically in Inferno.

These two concepts of contrapasso are important to consider in the final Canto of Inferno, and the actual contrapasso of Lucifer. Lucifer’s punishment reflects both an inner psychological state manifested physically in hell as well as an act against God which is punished in a manner which compliments the sin. Canto 34 introduces Lucifer, the fallen angel who rose against God’s will because of his own hubris. Throughout the Canto Dante refers to Lucifer’s fallen nature. He persistently describes him as having once been an actor of God, close to God’s light and love: “the creature who had once been beautiful,” (Dante 34.17-18 pg. 535) but contrasts this description against the haunting state of Lucifer in hell: “If he was as beautiful then as now he is ugly when he lifted his brow against his Maker.” (Dante 34.34-35 pg 536) These descriptions describe the fateful tale of Lucifer, important in understanding his contrapasso in Inferno.

Lucifer literally translates from Latin to “the morning star” or the planet Venus. Lucifer was the light bringer, the star of morning, and God’s heavenly servant. Lucifer’s story is described in the Book of Revelations:

”

Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. The dragon and its angels fought back, but they did not prevail and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. The huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to earth, and its angels were thrown down with it. (Revelations 12:7-9)

”

Satan, a blessed servant of God, turned his back on God’s light in his heavenly rebellion. Attempting to usurp power from God, Satan rallied other servants of God to his cause, sowing discord and ultimately dooming himself and his fallen angels to eternal punishment in Hell.

The story of Lucifer directly corresponds with the first aspect of contrapasso, as his sin was a direct act against God. We can see this demonstrated through his suffering in Inferno. Dante describes him as enormous, and submerged in the frozen ice of Cocytus. His form is mutilated, with three heads, four bat’s wings, and a covering of fur. Dante describes him “with six eyes he was weeping, and down three chins dripped the tears and the bloody slobber.” (Dante 34.52-54 pg. 537) His fate is directly linked to his actions, which we can see through his physical changes. His disfigurations poetically contrast his acts against god. Similar to the sowers of discord in Canto 28 within the 8th circle, 9th boglia, Satan is split. Unlike the sowers of discord, his body is not divided into pieces or separated, but rather divided within himself. Three heads sit upon his submerged body, a literal division of the self. Just as Satan divided the heavens in his rebellion, now too his physical state is split. Through his rebellion, Satan split the heavens in three. Those who fought with Satan, those who fought with God, and those who abstained, namely the inhabitants of the Anti-Inferno in Canto 3 of Inferno. Accordingly, Satan’s form is divided into three, represented by each head and each sinner. The mouths of Lucifer are covered in the blood of Judas, Brutus, and Cassius, all notable betrayers. Subsequently, Lucifer is unable to speak and also forced to chew in silence for all of eternity. This is where the contrapasso becomes more evident, as Lucifer’s voice and his call to abandon God for his cause is what placed him in the depths of hell. Now, frozen in ice, the lord of hell can’t take a respite from his task. He’s doomed to sit for all eternity without any possibility of speaking, or even utilizing the enormous and powerful form he possesses in hell. He’s consigned as a mere mechanism of the Inferno, a lower form of life not unlike Cerberus in Canto 6. This is further illustrated by his form, that of a three headed beast with fur like an animal, and four black bats wings, as Dante hauntingly that their “mode was like a bat’s; and he was fanning them, so that three winds went out from him: by them Cocytus was frozen.” (Dante 34.49-52 pg. 537)

Lucifer’s representation is also a perfect example of Steinberg’s description of contrapasso, as an embodiment of a personal psychological state manifested physically. Lucifer’s betrayal took extreme will. He needed to deliberately turn from God’s light and attempt to seize the heavens for himself, the highest form of aggression against God. In heaven, Satan was so focused on his own beauty and perfection that he moved to take power against his Maker. In hell, Satan is deformed. His power remains in his enormous and powerful form, but he’s unable to use it or even demonstrate it. Because he acted against God to such a degree, he’s now condemned to eternally serve as a mechanism in God’s divine plan. He freezes over Cocytus with his wings and chews sinners, all while eternally sitting in the darkness as the farthest being from God’s light.

In Henry John Stock’s 1923 Giclee Print Dante and Virgil Encounter Lucifer in Hell, Stock takes much of Dante’s descriptions and makes his own interpretations of Lucifer in hell to best illustrate the contrapasso evident in his punishment. An English painter in the late 19th and early 18th century, Stock had a very distinct style in his paintings. His works have very evident brushstrokes, similar to the impressionist style of the 19th century. His pieces often have very clear color choices, sometimes juxtaposed in a colorful assortment which makes his subjects stand out, and convey emotions. His style is apparent in Dante and Virgil Encounter Lucifer in Hell, where his impressionist strokes meet vibrant color choices. The composition of the work is straightforward. In the foreground stand Dante, characterized by his red nightgown and cap, and Virgil in his flowing robe and laurel wreath. Both figures stand juxtaposed against the harsh black ice of Cocytus, penetrated only by the subtle reflections of Lucifer’s figure. Lucifer himself broods in the background, the central figure of the piece. Depicted similarly to Dante’s descriptions in Inferno, he stands submerged in the ice, four wings outstretched behind his dark figure, shrouded in black and dark but vibrant blues. Unlike Dante, Stock chose to depict the lord of hell as a more human figure. A single head chews upon two sinners, one in each arm. He takes turns chewing each, and it’s clear that the focus here isn’t so much on the sinners he chews, but on Lucifer himself. The sinner in his mouth flails his legs behind him as Lucifer chews, a figure we can assume to be Judas from Dante’s descriptions of his position in Inferno: “”That soul up there who has the greatest punishment,” said my master, “is Judas Iscariot, with his head inside, waving his legs outside.” (Dante 34.61-63 pg. 537) An additional contrast to Inferno is Stock’s depiction of Lucifer without fur, and a dark, but human complexion. He freezes in the ice, and his expression in the work expresses an angry, brooding mood from his furrowed brows and clenched arms. He props an elbow against Cocytus, and presses Judas into his mouth just as a thinker would, contemplating or pondering, all while his muscles tense around the bloodied sinners in his grasp.

Stock’s interpretation of Dante’s punishment of Lucifer illustrates some of the important ideas which go behind his punishment. Stock’s representation of Lucifer as a humanlike figure in his composition grounds him in the flaws of humanity. Through this depiction of Lucifer, he achieves a representation of his manifested external psychological state, and better illustrates Steinberg’s description of contrapasso. Lucifer is doomed to his fate in Inferno, and Stock’s piece beautifully captures the suffering Lucifer is forced to endure. Because of his actions against God, he’s forced to sit forever silent, angry, and brooding in the 9th circle of hell. Stock’s piece conveys the suffering of Lucifer better than Dante accomplished in Inferno, because rather than fixating on the sinners in the mouths of Lucifer, Stock personifies Lucifer in order to bring his suffering into center frame. Unlike Dante’s 34th Canto, where Dante highlights Lucifer’s role as a mechanism in hell as well as the path through which he must tread to get to Purgatorio, Stock highlights that Satan himself is being punished, and not just a punisher.

It’s easy to think of Lucifer as a demon, a regulator of hell. Like the demons Dante encounters in Canto 21, the fifth bolgia of the eighth circle, Lucifer can at first be mistaken for an authoritarian figure. Especially considering his role as the single perpetrator of evil in medieval thought. Dante and Stock both agree that his role in hell is much more minimal. Their depictions of the lord of hell illustrate him as no lord at all, in fact both describe quite the opposite. Through these interpretations, the power of God is juxtaposed against the inability of Satan to act, the ultimate showing of God’s light against the darkness of Lucifer. Even as a mechanism of hell, Lucifer acts under God’s will, and is punished through God’s divine plan. In both Stock’s and Dante’s descriptions of Lucifer, he is punished just like any other sinner in Inferno, through contrapasso.

Michael Mazur’s 1996-2000 etching The Inferno of Dante: Canto XXXIV (The Giudecca—Lucifer) is a very different interpretation of Dante’s Lucifer from Stock’s. Where Stock humanizes, Mazur dehumanizes. Lucifer through Mazur’s eyes is beyond the disfigured form Dante describes in Inferno. While Stock humanized Lucifer to illustrate his contrapasso as a punishment of his act against god, Mazur does the opposite to achieve a different end: the depiction of Satan’s internal psychological state exerting itself materially upon him in the form of his contrapasso.

Mazur’s piece is very different from Stock’s not only in his interpretation of Lucifer but his compositional choices. As an artist from a very different era, this isn’t surprising. Mazur’s work is utterly monochromatic, dark black against a background of gray. The figure of Lucifer is illustrated in center frame, but his body isn’t visible. He’s a monster, barely recognizable as human. His head stands in stark contrast to the gray background, totally dark. Three faces protrude from his single head, a subtle change from Inferno. All three faces chew Judas, Brutus, and Cassius just as Dante describes, with Judas “his head inside waving his legs outside,” (Dante 34.62-63 pg. 537) and Brutus and Cassius “whose heads are below.” (Dante 34.64 pg. 537) Mazur’s composition is confusing, as Lucifer’s head protrudes between his wings which look feathered, unlike Dante’s description of bat-like wings. Lucifer appears to be in the foreground of the piece, but despite this we can see vague figures in the bottom of the composition which look to be heads emerging from Cocytus.

Lucifer’s expressions in this piece are the most important facet of Mazur’s interpretation of Dante’s contrapasso. What we can see of Lucifer’s eyes suggest that they are closed like a shark’s as it bites. His white teeth are harshly juxtaposed against the darkness of his face, hinting at the contortion his facial muscles express as they desperately clasp onto the bodies of the three sinners. Contributing to the disfiguration of Lucifer are his hands, only vague shadows which grip onto each sinner. He doesn’t have two hands, but rather six, two per sinner. The hands are barely illuminated, but what can be seen is thin and eerily sharp and straight. Not humane by any means.

The abomination which is Lucifer in this piece illustrate Lucifer’s fall from grace. Once a beautiful and capable servant of God, Lucifer is now contained within the animalistic form Mazur so fantastically illustrates. Desperate to shove each sinner into his mouths, Mazur’s portrayal of the lord of hell reduces Lucifer to an animalistic state, fiercely punishing the sinners he chews as the mechanism of hell he’s been reduced to. This representation embodies the psychological state of Lucifer when he turned against God. As Lucifer’s intentions were twisted against the light of God, so too was is his form in Mazur’s piece. Lucifer is reduced to a personification of the evil which he became in his rebellion against God. This interpretation of Dante’s contrapasso in Canto 34 illustrates the psychological state of Lucifer as he sinned manifesting itself physically in his punishment, a poetic contrapasso in corroboration with Steinberg’s description of contrapasso.

These interpretations of Dante’s contrapasso in the example of Lucifer illustrate two different perspectives on Lucifer’s punishment. Both artistic perspectives depict the state of Lucifer, far from God’s light in the depths of hell. But the stylistic and compositional choices of these two artists illustrate both the physical manifestation of Lucifer’s internal psychological state through his contrapasso, and his actual act against the will of God. These two aspects are differently focused on by Mazur and Stock. As Dante describes in Inferno, the contrapasso of Lucifer is a poetic reflection of his acts against God, and this idea is differently but accurately reflected in these pieces.

Citations

Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, Inferno. Edited and translated by

Robert M. Durling, intr., notes. Ronald L. Martinez Vol. 1, Oxford, 1996.

Book of Revelations. Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV) 2011 update. Original

translation led by Howard Long.

Durling, Robert, and Ronald Martinez. Notes. The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Volume 1

Inferno. By Dante Alighieri. New York: Oxford UP, USA, 1997. Print.

Steinberg, Justin, and Justin Steinberg. “Dante’s Justice? A Reappraisal of the

Contrapasso.” Academia.com, Academia, 2014, www.academia.edu/10659378/Dantes_Justice_A_reappraisal_of_the_contrapasso.

Copia di Purgatorio, Canto 33,

As Dante meets with Beatrice in canto 30 of Purgatory, and especially as he starts his journey to Paradise, a great contrast is built. Not only in the contrast between heaven and hell which itself is heavily evident, but also in Dante’s perception of both. A concept I found interesting is how Dante’s comprehension of God’s Divine will in Cantos 32-33 of Purgatory is a struggle to say the least. The waters of the Lethe (Canto 33 Purg., 96) and their impact on Dante are just one example, and in Beatrice’s own words; “the school that you have followed and may see if what it taught can comprehend what I have said – and see that, as the earth is distant from the highest and the swiftest of the heavens, so distant is your way from the divine,” (Canto 33 Purg., 85-90) or in other words, Dante’s perception of the way things work is exclusive to the human experience, and because of this he struggles to comprehend the “highest and swiftest” of divine will. This idea is further illustrated in Canto 1 of Paradiso, in which Dante describes the incredible sights he sees as he enters heaven, so incredible that “our intellect sinks into an abyss so deep that memory fails to follow it,” and he is unable to remember the sights, and is only left with the knowledge that they were beyond the human eye.

I found this idea interesting, especially considering how the sins of those in Inferno are not hard to perceive by Dante. He even finds himself relating to many of them and reacting to them emotionally, despite the advice of Virgil that pity for the sins of others is in it of itself a sin. The only real struggle Dante describes in Inferno is accurately capturing the nature of punishment, a severe contrast to the latter cantos of Purgatorio and those of Paradiso. I found this poetic, because it argues that the sins of Inferno are well situated in human perception and experience, while the light of God and his true intentions are far beyond our gaze.

Dante’s perception of Heaven and Hell is a mechanism through which poet Dante expresses the relativity of the human mind. He presents sin and punishment as something human perception is accustomed to, an element in our nature. Whereas in Paradiso, he demonstrates that divine will and the ultimate nature of heaven are truly beyond our gaze grounded on earth. In a certain way, Dante’s own sin and affiliation with it because of human nature is exactly what holds him from the actuality of God’s divine will.

Sidenote: My final paper will be an analysis of Contrapasso throughout Inferno, and its representation in art. I plan to go into depth on four major artists and their interpretations of Contrapasso in Inferno in addition to Dante’s descriptions of Contrapasso during his journey and after the last judgement. Finally, I hope to tie all of this together with an additional theme in Inferno: the relation between Art from Nature, and Nature from God.

Going through my blog posts I started to appreciate some of the changes I’ve made when writing a response to the work of Dante. I see a lot less discussion of the text in my earlier posts than I do in more recent published works, and I think that that’s a real and tangible improvement. I stand by the topics I’ve written about, though I think that as my perception of Dante and his Comedy have been refined and developed, so too have my topics of discussion. I think that I’ve made a lot of progress since my first post, and that I’ve better and more effectively engaged and built-off of the text in my posts.

Comparing my oldest and most recent work you can really start to see a lot of improvements. Not just in analysis, but also in how I engage with the text. I used a lot more quotes than I think was necessary in my first few posts. Not exactly a bad thing, but something I think could have been better considering my current works which rely a lot less on excerpts from the text, and more on an analysis of what Dante’s really saying through the Inferno. While the quotes establish a good dialogue and development of the text as I build up to my arguments, reflecting on them now I think these quotes really result in more of a summation than analysis. My second assignment on Canto 7 really shows this, especially through descriptions like “Just as these souls went against the will of Fortune, a device of God, they now take what they have (their weights) and collide and push against each other, a metaphor for their behavior on Earth.” While I stand by the post itself, which focuses on the degrees of sin and the idea of contrapasso, I think that my work has improved a lot from this base. I think that my analysis is a lot more thorough in recent posts than it was in posts like “Dante’s Vision of Contrapasso in the Punishment of Sin,” which isn’t to say that posts like these are bad, only that I’ve developed beyond them.

I noticed a main focus in my works, or a favorite topic at the very least. My favorite works so far are those which include Dante’s perception of God’s “Divine Plan,” and the construction of the Inferno with the intention of contrapasso. Dante’s exploration of contrapasso in the Inferno is something I find very interesting, as readers can probably tell from the numerous times that I’ve brought it up through my blog posts. My favorite post so far has likely been my analysis of the “Progression of the Recognition of Sin,” a post drawing a line between the sinners in the first couple bolgia and the “anti-inferno” from the first few Cantos of the Inferno. I think that the parallels between sin and punishment as well as the parallels between sinners in the Inferno (as I explore in my post) are fascinating, and it’s ideas like this that I feel really embody my development through these posts. In earlier posts, I think I was really just getting my footing in the Inferno. And now with a better understanding of Dante and the construction of his Inferno, I feel that a lot of my ideas are a lot more free-flowing and interesting, especially now that I’ve really solidified an interest in Dante’s work.

Ultimately I think my posts are improving, but they still need work. I think that my topics are improving in terms of thought, but in terms of writing I think I can still do better. A lot of my main shortcomings are a result of relying on the text a lot more than I should, and while I feel that I’ve definitely progressed a lot from that, I can certainly continue to improve.

Gustave Doré – Canto 5 linea 105: “love brought us one death, Caina waits the soul, who split our life.”

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/8789/8789-h/8789-h.htm#link5

I found this image in Project Gutenberg’s Vision of Hell, an eBook which includes the Inferno alongside the illustrated works of Gustave Doré. It’s found in the 5^th Canto section of the work. The inscription below the piece is a quote from line 105 of the Canto, and it reads: “Love brought us one death: Caina waits the soul who split our life.” This alludes to the murder of Francesca de Rimini and her lover Paolo by Francesca’s husband, the older brother of Paolo. He is destined for Caina, the 9^th circle of hell.

The work illustrates the whirlwind of souls which Dante finds in the second circle, where the carnal sinners, “who subject reason to lust” (38) are doomed to wail among the howling winds. Many notable figures are doomed to this fate: Cleopatra, and central figures in the Trojan war, Paris and Helen. Virgil points out “more than a thousand [other] shades” (67) in addition to those he names.  In Doré’s work you can see two souls highlighted amid a hurricane of others, romanticized to illustrate their pain and sadness.  Francesca and Paolo, who are doomed to spend eternity in the second circle. Paolo’s head leans back as in agony, and Francesca turns toward the poets to tell her story: that of two poor souls who were driven by love and lust to commit sin.

Dante says “After I had heard those wounded souls, I bowed my face, and held it low” (109), a position illustrated in Doré’s etching. Dante is overcome by emotion and pity, both encapsulated by his pose in the painting, looking down and leaning to one side. As Francesca tells the tale of her love and lust, Paolo’s wails and tears evoke so much emotion in Dante that he faints, “as a dead body falls,” (142) totally overcome by pity.