Purgatory

Purgatorio X includes the text of Purgatorio IX in a four column layout on the verso

This drawing stands out amongst Botticelli's best for the Commedia series. It is essentially a sketch that displays a narrative around other's people's art. This theme would have been immediately inspiring to Botticelli and the result is one of the best of his manuscript illustrations.

Dante and Virgil, seen together throughout this series, discuss and peruse the work of God, whose art is aimed at teachings others of humility and modesty. The more subtle lines found here are to set an approximate architecture around which the two figures would wander.

The concept of God creating art in line with this literative piece was unusual within the Renaissance and offered a new perspective on disegno, or painting. Perhaps the truly divine art is not painting or sculpture after all, but in the original drawings as performed by God.

To cover the work of God in this drawing, there is a depiction of the Annunciation on the far left, with David's dance before the ark in the centre. The Justice of Trajan is the busiest of the three works and dominates the right hand side of the sketch, with a small frame that separates it from the viewers.

The key point from this series for Dante's Divine Comedy is that perhaps drawings are the height of artistic purity, even when compared to the stunning Sandro Botticelli paintings that can be found elsewhere on this site.