Visualizing a Series: Aggregate Compositional Analysis of Botticelli's Commedia

Applying digital methods as inputs to an interpretive process, I expose compositional motifs within Sandro Botticelli's momentous Divina Commedia codex that depart from canonical manuscript illustrations. I then situate these visual findings within Quattrocento literary and artistic theory, arguing that Botticelli manipulated his compositional structures to harmonize with the humanist Cristoforo Landino's interpretation of the Commedia as an allegory for the soul's ascension from disorder to order. By leafing through the pages of Botticelli's manuscript and perceiving the striking structure and style of the illustrations, the observer could experience the incremental progress of Dante the Pilgrim’s soul — and perhaps the viewer’s own — through the different stages of hell to paradise. Ultimately, I reflect on the implications of digital methodologies within art history, and how these techniques may enrich or even challenge traditional modes of “seeing” works of art.