Wij opwaarts hij vooruit en ik hem volgend
Tot ik een deel van ‘ s Hemels heerlijkheid
Gewaar werd door een cirkelvormige oopning.
Hier uitgaand zagen wij de sterren weder.
Last verse of The Hell, song XXXIV,
Divina Commedia by Dante Alighieri
written between 1307 and 1321.
Metrical translation into Dutch by A.S. Kok, published by A.C. Kruseman, Harlem, 1863.
Drawing by Sandro Botticelli, 1481-1488.
The Kupferstichkabinett honors poet and writer Dante Alighieri on the occasion of his 700th death anniversary.
The museum posesses Sandro Botticelli's original drawings, which he made for Alighieri's most famous work, Divina Commedia, 83 originals are part of the collection of the Kupferstichkabinett.
I would like to see them but they turn out to be so precious and fragile that only a fascimile is available, number 10 from an edition of 250 worldwide.
Divina Commedia can be read as the soul journey of Dante Alighieri himself to God, and is designed as a calendar, with drawings above and chants below, totaling more than 14,000 verses. A Catholic worship, purification and idolization by the deeply religious Alighieri, who gave his secret love, Beatrice, a prominent role in his singing. Along with Virgil himself, Dante descends into hell, ascends via the mountain of purification, and finally reaches heaven, the Empyreum. A journey from the deepest caverns of the earth, into the universe.
In the 14th century, it was believed that the earth was the center of the universe. And yet Dante Alighieri sought the connection to higher realms, beyond/above the earth. Nothing Dante missed more in hell than the stars, the small points of light in every dark night.
Divina Commedia consists of three parts, Hell, Purgatory Mountain, and Paradise.
Dante finishes each section by reaching for the stars.
(I do realize, this is an extremely brief description of this work. There are probably more translations of it worldwide than there exist of the Bible. And many uncertainties remain about the drawings Sandro Botticelli made between 1481 and 1488).