Witnessing Inferno: Visual Representation and Perception of Light in a Space of Trauma

Abstract

The act of witnessing a process of violence generates testimonies which, in their turn, may foster different reactions not only of a first-hand experience witness but also of a second and even third-hand experience witnesses. Such experiences could be identified in the case of a literary testimony delivered by Dante in his “Divina Commedia”. Bearing witness to the traumas suffered by the characters encountered during his journey inside Inferno, Dante gave account of a first-hand experience which was transposed first into a poetic form and later into distinct visual representations of his literary imagery. The visual perception of the famous book illustrations for Dante’s Inferno transforms the viewers into third-hand experience witnesses. The study intends to analyse the use of perspective, light, main axis and the arrangement of characters as employed by Gustave Doré and William Blake for illustrating the sufferings endured by Paolo and Francesca da Rimini. The analysis aims to reveal the visual effects destined to influence the perception of this specific space of trauma.

Keywords

• inferno
• representation
• perception
• visual
• light
• shadow