Book Competition

This week’s competition prize is William Blake: The drawings for Dante’s Divine Comedy, by Sebastian Schütze & Maria Antonietta Terzoli (Taschen, £99.99) Click here for a chance to win

Celebrated around the world as a literary monument, The Divine Comedy, completed in 1321 and written by Dante Alighieri is widely considered the greatest work ever composed in the Italian language. In the last few years of his life, Romantic poet and artist William Blake produced 102 illustrations for Dante’s masterwork, from pencil sketches to finished watercolours. Like Dante’s sweeping poem, Blake’s drawings range from scenes of infernal suffering to celestial light, from horrifying human disfigurement to the perfection of physical form. While faithful to the text, Blake also brought his own perspective to some of Dante’s central themes. This book brings these works together alongside key excerpts from Dante’s masterpiece. Two introductory essays consider Dante and Blake, as well as other major artists who have been inspired by The Divine Comedy, including Sandro Botticelli, Michelangelo, Eugène Delacroix, Gustave Doré and Auguste Rodin.