Annabella Shehata

Professor Porcelli

Italian 276

24 May 2019

The Artistic Layers of Inferno

The dark depths of Hell, over many decades, has been brought to life in a number of ways, from poetry and novels to paintings and sculptures. Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, as one of the most detailed and revered interpretations of the notion of Hell, has been part of a massive outburst of depictions that portray the harrowing horrors of the afterlife of sinners. One particular example is a painting known as The Last Judgement, created by Jan Van Eyck, generating a captivating image with endless details that range from demonic beasts to a hierarchical arrangement of saints watching the chaos beneath them unfold. On a different side of the spectrum of adaptations is a sculpture that relates to the myth of Perseus and Medusa, that is alluded to in Inferno. The statue, sculpted by Antonio Canova, is made up of Perseus the soldier who holds the head of Medusa in one hand and the sword he used to decapitate her in the other hand. Both of these works of art in comparison to Dante’s Inferno display similarities in expressing certain themes and their representations of the different aspects of Hell.

Beginning with The Last Judgement, one can observe an intricately designed piece of artwork that portrays disturbing details of sinners being led to their unavoidable fate of devastating eternal sufferings. The fearful beasts down below have animal-like appearances. Their eyes are demonic and are ablaze with wrath and destruction while their sharp teeth are bared, demonstrating a readiness to devour the inhabitants and newcomers of Hell while others are already digging into their fresh human flesh. As for the souls, themselves, the countenances of each of them vary from person to person. The different levels of fear, anguish and devastation, reflect the severity of their punishments, which, in this case, entail whether or not they are suffering a beast’s bite. However, there is one exception in which one soul appears to be grinning, despite his circumstances. This is likely a sign of madness because his eyes lack liveliness and a willingness to endure the inescapable torment. Furthermore, the arrangement of the demonic beasts and the souls are laid out in a chaotic manner purposefully to create a number of effects. Primarily, it emphasizes the fear and uncertainty of the souls as they desperately attempt to escape from the harrowing punishments inflicted upon them. It also invokes a sense of confusion in the observer because one does not know where to look first or who to direct their pity towards, if at all. The chaos gives an insight into the dramatic environment of Hell, itself, that sparks a sharp contrast to the aura of Earth. It minimizes the clarity, peace, and beauty that humans are allowed in life while drastically decreasing the personal space and allowance to rest whenever one desires to do so. All this is replaced with the terrifying unreliability of the bestial demons’ behaviors and the events that will follow. Although they are controlled by God’s will, most of them still have the freedom to carry out their evil inclinations on the pitiful souls, in any manner they wish. Consequently, although the souls know the nature of their punishments, they’re not always aware of the extent to which their punishments will be carried out. Another effect that the painting creates is an ability to portray how the punishments and destruction of human flesh replaces peace with horror, unbearable pain and melancholy for their eternal fates. Instead of beauty, there are disgusting and revolting demons that one can only fathom in their worst nightmares. The insufferable closeness of the souls and never ending punishments take the place of fresh air and the warming sunlight of Mother Nature on Earth. Although these sinners are aware that their fate is permanent, at this point it is too late to repent and impossible to ascend to purgatory and especially paradise.

An example of the unreliable and unpredictable mannerisms is reflected in Dante’s Inferno at the point when Dante, the pilgrim, and his guide, Virgil, are faced with a group of demons known as Malebranche. Dante, as the narrator, notes the cruel and ruthless nature of the demons through the use of metaphors. At one instant, he relates, “After they made him feel the teeth of a hundred prongs, they said: ‘Down here you have to dance/ covered up and, if you can, grab secretly.’ Not otherwise do cooks have servants push down with hooks the meat cooking in a broth, so that it may not float.” (Inferno 21.52-7). In this vivid description, Dante recounts the moments during which he witnessed members of the Malebranche sinking their claws into a sinner who mocks the demons by revealing his bottom from underneath a scorching body of liquid. The demons remind the sinner in a sneering tone that he can move about as he pleases, but must always remain beneath the surface of the boiling liquid. The grabbing that the demons are referring to ties into the contrapasso of the sinners’ punishments. In the living world, they held powerful positions as political or religious leaders who would greedily attempt to obtain as much material wealth as possible. This metaphorical grabbing signifies that the demons are taunting the sinner to grasp ahold of whatever is within their reach, which, in this case, is nothing but the blistering hot liquid they’re forced to swim in for all eternity. This demeaning tone only emphasizes the cruelty of the demons. According to Dante, it is as if they’re cooking meat in a broth and their pitchforks and claws allow them to push the ‘meat’ further and further down into the liquid with such force and and determination to prevent them from resurfacing. This dramatic image that compares a sinner to meat diminishes his humanity and fear in a scornful manner to emphasize barbarism of the devils. Just like the meat that is being cooked, the sinner is no longer alive and therefore does not have a say in his treatment. While surfacing to the top of the sweltering pitch may offer some temporary relief, they’ll only be faced with more pain from the sadistic demons that show no mercy whatsoever. Their enjoyment at the sight of the sinners’ flesh being tormented by bubbling heat and elongated claws are part of what makes up the inherently evil nature of God’s hellish creatures.

Upon closer observation of The Last Judgement, one will notice a striking detail that emphasizes the desperation of souls upon entering Inferno. On the muddy and earthy ground that separates the angels and saints from the damned below, there are human bodies, most of which are struggling out of holes in the Earth. Many of them are outstretching their arms to Christ as a sign of pleading them to salvage them from their disturbing and merciless fate.

This image resembles moments throughout Dante’s journey during which he encounters souls who entreat him to speak well of them in the living world in an attempt to salvage their reputations and to avoid being forgotten. However, there are other souls, who have hope of being spared of the dreadful torment and plead Dante to pray for them. Similarly to Eyck’s painting, these souls cannot hope for anything but to be saved. This serves a purpose to the hierarchical arrangements of the angels and saints surrounding the centerpiece of the top half of the painting: Christ. This hierarchical arrangement is found in Dante’s text as well, simply by the setup of Inferno, itself. As Dante descends deeper to the bottom of Hell, the more petrifying the circumstances, punishments and demonic inhabitants become just like the beasts.

When it comes to the myth of Perseus and Medusa, there are several underlying motifs that are important to note and are found in both the statue and Dante’s Inferno. The soldier, known as Perseus, proudly holds the decapitated head of the monstress feared by men, known as Medusa. In context, the story of Perseus and Medusa goes as follows: Known for her hideously wicked demeanor that transforms anyone, who stares directly into her eyes into stone, Medusa becomes Perseus’s target of justice. He manages to murder her and simultaneously avoid eye contact by focusing on her reflection in his shield and thus, producing a pitiful sight of a beheaded serpent woman. There are many notable features regarding this sculpture. Primarily, upon observing it, one will notice an aura of confidence and boldness that emits from it. His arms are stretched out in opposite directions, each hand grasping Perseus’s two sources of pride. One clutches the disembodied head of Medusa by some of the multitude of snakes that make up her hair while the other hand has a firm grip on the sword that aided in his accomplishment. The heroic reputation given to Perseus is reflected in the muscular structure of the figure. The well proportioned body that displays a lack of hesitancy in his position by stretching out both his arms and one of his legs, expresses an absence of regret or remorse. However, one should question the dangerous reputation that the aura of this statue implies of Medusa once the text of Inferno is taken into consideration. Teodolinda Barolini comments on this notion and puts it into perspective:

“In other words, if Dante fails to believe in the power that sent him on this voyage, he will be petrified, paralyzed with fear and despair. But these threats are baseless, impotent. We should not be tempted to believe Medusa. Given what Beatrice told Virgilio about Hell’s inability to harm her…we should never feel fear or suspense with respect to the ability of any creature in Hell to harm the pilgrim. But the “living textuality” of the Commedia is such that the text works to make us feel fear or suspense, even though technically we should know that these feelings are without merit,” (Barolini).

Barolini makes several important points here in reference to the threats that endanger Dante, the pilgrim, on his journey through Hell. The point she is trying to express is that Dante, through acknowledging the power of God’s will, he must understand the dangers that will hinder his path and the possibility of having to turn back on his own or perhaps, turned into stone. However, these menacing warnings aren’t necessarily anything that should be taken seriously because Beatrice reassured Virgil that if Hell cannot harm her, a soul that is already dead, then there is no possibility of Dante being harmed, either. It is not a question that should be given importance, especially because Beatrice is given the high honor of residing in Paradise while sending Virgil on his way to guide and protect Dante throughout the harrowing journey. Knowing that Dante will reach Purgatory and Paradise, regardless, this is yet another reason to remind oneself that the danger of Medusa’s visage proves to be pointless. Nevertheless, Dante’s ability to express a vividly harrowing chain of events that invokes sentiments of terror and anticipation of the worst in the reader, despite knowing that the pilgrim will make it safely to the end of his journey, is part of what makes Inferno a remarkable interpretation of Hell.

This perspective provides a stark contrast to Canova’s sculpture in which Medusa’s evil demeanor implies that her fate as a beheaded monster is well deserved. It also highlights the notion of whether or not Perseus is truly a hero or simply a soldier with the advantage of killing a woman who, through no fault of her own, transformed from a radiant young damsel to a disgusting figure of evil, only to have her chances of revenge cut short by a young man and his reflective weapons. Evidently, both the text and the sculpture kindles mixed emotions pertaining to Perseus and Medusa that express the idea that although the figures of Hell are evil and dangerous by appearance, this does not always mean that they chose to be this way nor that this is their inherent nature. Susan Bowers creates an emphasis on this point when she states, “The grotesque paradox of the Olympian Medusa is the juxtaposition of her extraordinary beauty and her horror…The Olympian Medusa has become a ‘myth of origin for amulets’ because her head ‘literally combines and contains evil mixtures and confuses the sacred and profane, law and taboo, pure and impure…contagion and cure,’ and the purpose of the amulet is to baffle, to create confusion,” (222, Bowers). The ‘paradox’ that Bowers alludes to is the sudden transformation from gorgeous damsel to horrific monstress. For this reason alone, she has become an inspiration for a piece of jewelry known as an amulet, which is created with extraordinary intentions of protecting the person who wears it. However, one cannot be sure that it does indeed protect because, Medusa, as a figure, represents two sides of a spectrum for any notion, whether pertaining to religion, law or sickness, as if she, herself, is an analogy for yin and yang.

Furthermore, the story of Perseus and Medusa contain another element that is found in both the text and the sculpture. A significant motif present in this myth is pride and is one of the main reasons that Dante purposefully chooses to include these figures in Inferno. To comprehend the reason for this one must acknowledge the background of Medusa’s behavior. As mentioned before, she had not always been a terrifyingly devious creature with serpents in her hair. In reality, she had been an attractive maiden that came across misfortune when she encountered the god, Neptune, who rapes her in the temple of Athena. To make matters much worse, Athena, upon discovering what occurred, becomes consumed by jealousy and transforms Medusa into the horrifying demoness. Consequently, the rageful vengeance that is inherent in her newfound destiny is justified and cannot be used against her. However, the flaw lies in the fact that her ability to turn men to stone is a blinding weapon that punishes men who did not cause her any harm. Although the transformation is not voluntary, the pride that Medusa is trying to secure is evident. The torturous and unforgivable torment that Medusa endures, on behalf of Neptune, takes a toll on her dignity to the extent that she can no longer see anything but cursed revenge. However it may satisfy her to a certain extent, it is a pointless endeavor because, regardless, she is forced to remain this way for eternity thanks to the cursed fate Athena bestows upon her.

This context brings to light Virgil’s situation upon his encounter at the gates of the city of Dis. The gates are protected by a group of demons that are terribly stubborn and refuse to permit the two voyagers to enter. Although Virgil’s mission to persuade them otherwise does not relate to anger or wrath, setting his mind to cleverly convincing demons as if he is an incomparable mastermind of witty words is a matter of pride. The flawed mindset portrays arrogance in Virgil because he refuses to believe or acknowledge that there is a possibility of failure. Similar to Medusa, his inability to see the long term consequences of such a mindset is what ultimately leads to an unfruitful chain of events. On the one hand Medusa consistently sets out to destroy men even if, in reality, this will not affect the true perpetrator of the crime, Neptune, himself. On the other hand, Virgil, firmly believing that the stubborn group of demons are merely an inconvenience, ends up failing to obtain permission to enter the city of Dis. This leads to a loss of self-confidence as well Dante’s trust in Virgil’s abilities.

Stories are constantly weaved into works of art and for this reason, texts are associated with them, bringing them to life. Dante’s Inferno along with The Last Judgement and the sculpture of Perseus and the head of Medusa by Canova are exceptional examples that reminisce of entire motifs throughout the poem. The hierarchy of saints and demons alongside the text allow observers to understand the layers of interpretations that were commonly utilized throughout different time periods. The complex themes of pride and obstinacy allow an insight into the multifold layers of Medusa and Perseus giving a fairer comprehension of the myth while growing a deeper appreciation for the artwork, itself. However, it doesn’t cease here because, with each generation, comes new concepts and compelling art that absorbs the audience into the abyss of Hell to endure the torment alongside their fellow sinners.

Works Cited

Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri. Translated by Robert M. Durling. Edited by Ronald L. Martinez, vol. 1, Oxford University Press, 1996.

Barolini, Teodolinda. “Inferno 9: Virgilio and Fallibility.” Commento Baroliniano, Digital Dante. New York, NY: Columbia University Libraries, 2018. https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/inferno/inferno-9/

Susan R. Bowers. “Medusa and the Female Gaze.” NWSA Journal, vol. 2, no. 2, 1990, pp. 217–235. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4316018.