The Map of Hell (in Italian La Mappa dell’Inferno) by Botticelli – regularly called The Abyss of Hell or La Voragine dell’Inferno – is one of the parchments that the famous Italian painter designed to illustrate an edition of The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri.
The Map of Hell parchment shows the geography of Hell in the classical funnel section, which was used in later iconography.
The parchment was painted by Botticelli between 1480 and 1490, with the technique of the silver tip.
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The artist Sandro Botticelli
The famous painter Sandro Botticelli, whose real name was Alessandro Filipepi, was born in Florence in 1445 and died there in 1510.
He created his drawings for some of the engravings by goldsmith and etcher Baccio Baldini, which decorated the 1481 edition of The Divine Comedy published in Florence for Niccolò di Lorenzo della Magna, with commentary by Cristoforo Landino. This project reflects the revival of interest in Dante Alighieri in late fifteenth century Florence.
Our most important early source on Botticelli’s Divine Comedy drawings is the Italian artist and historian Giorgio Vasari, who wrote in 1550 in his The Lives of the Artists that
Having completed the work assigned to him, he returned at once to Florence, where, being whimsical and eccentric, he occupied himself with commenting on a certain part of Dante, illustrating the Inferno, and executing prints, over which he wasted much time, and, neglecting his proper occupation, he did no work, and thereby caused infinite disorder in his affairs.
The drawings bewtween Rome and Berlin
Currently, we are aware of the existence of ninety-two parchments, which were discovered and became famous only in the mid-nineteenth century. Seven parchments are kept in the Vatican Library in Rome and eighty-five are at the Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings) in Berlin. The Abyss of Hell, or Map of Hell, is among those currently preserved in Rome.
Whereas previous artists had decorated manuscripts of The Divine Comedy as well, Botticelli’s drawings were very detailed and exceptionally faithful to Dante’s epic.
If you are interested in reading a good, easy to understand rendition of The Divine Comedy which includes several drawings selected from Botticelli’s series of illustrations, we recommend the Mandelbaum edition. It is a popular modern rendition with commentary by American professor Allen Mandelbaum, which includes forty-two Botticelli’s illustrations. We also recommend Sandro Botticelli: The Drawings for Dante’s Divine Comedy, a really precious book that features each of Botticelli’s canto sheets illustrated in superb color, faced by a commentary and eight essays on Botticelli, the Medici, and the Divine Comedy.
The structure of Hell
As we mentioned above, the structure of hell created by Dante and designed by Botticelli is shaped like an inverted cone—like a funnel—which degrades with its nine circles to the center of the Earth, in which Lucifer is embedded.
In each circle, the damned are punished for a specific sin, according to the following structure.
Circle form First to Sixth
First circle: Limbo (place for unbaptized and the virtuous pagans)
Second circle: lust
Third circle: gluttony
Fourth circle: greed
Fifth circle: wrath and sloth
Sixth circle: heresy
Seventh circle: violence
Seventh circle is divided into three rings:
Outer ring: violent against people and property
Middle ring: suicides and profligates
Inner ring: violent against God (blasphemers) and violent against nature
Eighth circle: fraud
Eight circle is called Malebolge and is divided into ten ditches. This part of Dante’s Inferno, or better this part of Botticelli’s Map of Hell, plays a key role in Dan Brown’s Inferno.
First ditch: panderers and seducers
Second ditch: flatterers
Third ditch: who committed simony
Forth ditch: sorcerers, astrologers, and false prophets
Fifth ditch: corrupt politicians (barrators)
Sixth ditch: hypocrites
Seventh ditch: thieves
Eight ditch: fraudulent advisers or evil counselors
Ninth ditch: sowers of discord
Ten ditch: falsifiers (alchemists, counterfeiters, perjurers, and impostors)
Ninth circle: treachery
Ninth circle is dived into four rounds:
First round: traitors to kindred
Second round: traitors to political entities, such as parties, cities, or countries
Third round: traitors to their guests
Forth round: traitors to their lords and benefactors.
Do you need to understand better Dante’s circles? Check the map below.
very nice
I am an art student with an art history minor and I am currently writing a thesis involving Botticelli’s Map of Hell. I love this! Quite interesting.
Thank you Miguel, hope you find it helpful for your thesis
hey please keep me in touch with your findings ^_^
I’ve seen the Birth of Venus and Primavera at the Uffizi in Florence; is the Mappa dell’Inferno available for public viewing in Rome?
Yes, it is! You have to check the Vatican Library opening hours!
I am currently reading Dan Brown’s Inferno. If I can only see the painting up close in more detail…
Hi May, we’re thinking about and we will update the post very soon.
Thanks for this website! I’m currently listening to Dan Brown’s Inferno and am researching Boticelli’s Inferno painting. Too bad I didn’t know that this painting was in the Vatican Library. I’ve already visited the Vatican to see the Sistine Chapel.
I wish there was someone to write a good novel or paint a good map about my Quran and its wisdoms.
someone like Dan Brown…
is there any way I can get a copy of this with the pictures printed off? My son is doing a paper on him and we are looking for a copy of this article to add to his report. This is the one that he has used so his teacher has told him he needs to include the article with the pictures with it. Thanks in advance for your help.
Why is it impossible to get a poster of the painting anywhere? I can´t find it..
Hi, i have read first 50 pages of the book Inferno by dan brown, i m in love with this book, i love the way the painting is explained, i regret as i have visited Florence n whole of Italy but couldnt get hold on the original painting, well i do got to have a view on internet.
Hi anyone know where I can get a decent size print of Botticelli’s Map of Hell
Andy, unfortunately we have not found it yet.
I’ve read Infero (and i’m 13) but this fits so good with what was discibed in the book
I wish i could see the real painting up close (or as close as you can get)
Hi Gwen, as indicated in the article the painting is in the Vatican Library in Rome.
LOL
NICE AND NEAT DUDE
Kat
Hi I’m doing my masters in counselling and one of my unit modules was art therapy. I was fascinated by this painting as I repeatedly drew what I perceived to be tornadoes or spirals of energy, ascending downwards in class exercises. Posed a most convincing argument for my lecturer on synchronicity of archetypes as outlined by Jung, and received an A for assignment! So many thanks for this and I can’t wait to see this painting when I go to Florence in 2018. Interesting too regarding the use e of 9 which in numerology represents endings…. would that relegate individuals like me to category 8, fourth ditch
On the Inferno Tour, will we be seeing this painting, and learning about it
No, it is in Rome while our tour takes place in Florence, Italy.
Any chance anyone knows where i can watch Botticelli’s Inferno the documentary by Ralph Loop, im working on a school project and that documentary would probably help a whole lot
I am reading the book and the map really helped me. Thank you for the map and explanations of circles in simple