BARTOLOMEO DI FRUOSINO
(b. ca. 1366, Firenze, d. 1441, Firenze)

Inferno, from the Divine Comedy by Dante (Folio 1v)

1430-35
Manuscript (Ms. it. 74), 365 x 265 mm
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris

The codex in Paris contains the text of the Inferno, the first of three books of the Divine Comedy, the masterpiece of the Florentine poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). The codex begins with two full-page illuminations. On folio 1v Dante and Virgil stand within the doorway of Hell at the upper left and observe its nine different zones. Dante and Virgil are to wade through successive circles teeming with images of the damned. The gates of Hell appear in the middle, a scarlet row of open sarcophagi before them. Devils orchestrate the movements of the wretched souls.

The vision of the fiery inferno follows a convention established by Nardo di Cione's fresco in the church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence. Of remarkable vivacity and intensity of expression, the illumination is executed in Bartolomeo's late style.




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