Amos Nattini’s Illustrations of The Divine Comedy (1900s)

“Many artists have interpreted Dante’s afterlife by letting themselves be inspired by the culture and fears of their time. Amos Nattini, between 1915 and 1939, undertakes this great project with passion and dedication, giving us an absolutely human and realistic version of it. His lithographs were published together with the Divine Comedy text in three volumes. The edition of the Cariparma Foundation is dated 1939.”    — “Amos Nattini and The Divine Comedy,” Google Arts and Culture (Retrieved March 28, 2024).

Nattini illustrated all three canticles of the Commedia, which were published in a monumental edition in 1939. In July 2020, the Comune di Forlì created a series of virtual visits posted on YouTube to the Biblioteca Comunale “Aurelio Saffi” di Forlì, showcasing Nattini’s Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. Pictured above is the pilgrim’s encounter with Virgil in Inferno 1, rescuing him from the three beasts.