After Beatrice condemns the contemporary lack of moral leadership, Dante turns to look at what is reflected in her eyes: a brilliant point of light surrounded by nine whirling concentric rings of fire, each being an order of angels. The apostles rise up into the Empyrean, leaving Dante to gaze down at the earth, where he sees the route of Ulysses’ last voyage, before he is elevated upwards again to the first moving sphere (Primum Mobile), responsible for transmitting the motion generated by God’s love down to the lower spheres it is thus the origin of time. Saint Peter then angrily condemns Pope Boniface VIII and his successors for their betrayal of the martyrs before them, and promises God’s vengeance. They are joined by Adam, who answers Dante’s questions about when he was admitted to Paradise. Wikimedia Commons.ĭante’s sight fails again from looking at the radiance of Saint John, but recovers once he looks back at Beatrice.

Gustave Doré (1832–1883), Heaven of the Fixed Stars, Paradiso Canto 26 (c 1867), engraving, dimensions and location not known. William Blake (1757–1827), St Peter and St James with Dante and Beatrice (Dante’s Paradiso) (1824-27), pen, ink and watercolour over pencil on paper, 37.1 x 52.7 cm, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia. Philipp Veit (1793–1877), Fixed Stars, Gemini, Paradise (detail) (1817-27), fresco, dimensions not known, Casa Massimo, Rome, Italy. Dante is joined by the apostles Peter, James and John, who examine him in sequence on the Christian virtues of faith, hope and love, respectively. From here, Dante looks down on the poor little earth far below, then upwards to see the shining light of Christ himself, above his triumphant armies.ĭazzled, he looks down at Beatrice to recover his sight, then up again to see the Virgin Mary surrounded by the Archangel Gabriel. Dante and Beatrice ascend the golden ladder – previously Jacob’s Ladder – taking them up from the realms of the planets to the shell of fixed stars, where they arrive in Gemini, under whose sign Dante had been born.

Gustave dore divine comedy