8. Dante's Dream of the Eagle; Door of Purgatory; Punishment of the Proud
9. Virgin and Child in the Celestial Rose His illustrations of the Paradiso are greatly admired for their visual interpretation of the poem: the artist doesn't just transcribe Dante's words but seeks to render their meaning.
17. "The Baffled Devils Fighting" As we generally find with Blake's illustrations to the works of other writers, he has paid close attention to the details of Dante's poem . From his early years, he experienced visions of angels and ghostly monks, he saw and conversed with the angel Gabriel, the Virgin Mary, and various historical figures.
18. "Dante Running from the Three Beasts" While faithful to the text, Blake also brings his own perspective to bear on some of Dante's central themes, including sin, guilt, punishment, revenge, and salvation.
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20. "Minos" Among Blake's later artistic works are drawings and engravings for Dante's Divine Comedy and the 21 illustrations to the book of Job, which was completed when he was almost 70 years old.
On a symbolic level, the poems describes the spiritual pilgrimage for the Christian soul from sin (Hell), through purification (Purgatory), and ultimately, to salvation (Paradise). He rejected the Latin of churchmen and scholars and wrote in his native Italian, the language of everyday speech. Dante called his poem a comedy because the piece begins with affliction (hell) and ends with joy (Heaven).