Divine Comedy: Purgatorio

The Purgatorio in the arts

The Divine Comedy has been a source of inspiration for countless artists for almost seven centuries. While references to the Inferno are the most common, there are also many references to the Purgatorio. Franz Liszt's Symphony to Dante's Divina Commedia (1856) has a "Purgatorio" movement, as does Robert W. Smith's The Divine Comedy (2006). Chaucer and others have referenced the Purgatorio in their writing. Many visual artists have depicted scenes from the Purgatorio, including Gustave Doré, John Flaxman, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John William Waterhouse, and William Blake.
