What is the aesthetic appeal of The Divine Comedy by Dante?

Answer 1

Let's discuss hierarchy and the grotesque, two components of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. Using the Inferno as our reference, both of these elements are readily apparent: the Hell Dante describes is rigidly structured, and the occupants of Hell are disgusting, dejected, and at times demented.

Dante's focus on hierarchy in his Hell reflects an aesthetic that is common throughout the history of art, not just in the Medieval Period. One may consider the prevalence of geometric and mandala-based artwork in contemporary times, but one could also look to far-flung countries and civilizations and find similar examples. To consider a Medieval example, look no further than Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights. The principles employed in Dante's hierarchy (and shared by the aforementioned examples) include symmetry, pattern, repetition, and importance demonstrated by size or placement. Thus, the rings come one after another, leading Dante and Vergil (his guide) further and further into the pit of despair, where they ultimately reach the nadir and encounter Satan himself at the very center of Hell. This structure is based somewhat on Christian dogma; however, where he relied on inventions of his own, Dante continued to adhere to the principles of the structure he created along with the principle of poetic justice in pairing his sinners with an appropriate punishment. These sinners, their sins, and their subsequent punishments account for the second component -- the grotesque. When describing the ten "pouches" in Malebolge (the circles within the Eighth Circle), Dante thrills and excites the reader with ever-more horrifying descriptions of violence being visited upon the respective pouch's residents.

For the remaining two-thirds of the Divine Comedy (Purgatorio and Paradiso), this component of the work's aesthetic shifts away from descriptions of ugliness, brutality, and degradation. As Dante ascends, he instead finds beauty, kindness, and compassion; the hypothetical and hyperbolic punishments give way to the rewards of Heaven. Nevertheless, the use of visual imagery and poetic justice remains consistent. Bear in mind that the work is a poem, so it has an auditory aesthetic as well, describing the way it sounds when read aloud (rhythm, rhyme, meter, etc). Furthermore, the work has since served as the primary reference in the nationalization of the Italian language, demonstrating one reason why the Tuscan dialect ultimately became the "official" version of Italian rather than another dialect.