Dante: Hell on the WebDateline: 02/02/00
A new
multimedia project allows visitors to explore Dante's 700-year-old
vision of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise.
Sponsored by the United
Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, more
commonly known as UNESCO, the project features 120 original illustrations
from a French translation of Dante's master work.
Artist Vladimir Liagatchev spent more than 10 years creating the images
for a book before he decided to approach UNESCO with the work and his
ideas for a digital project.
With UNESCO's navigational system users begin their tour through
Dante's world with a single image. They can then choose to navigate
Dante's work step-by-step or head straight to Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory.
The UNESCO site isn't the first Dante hypertext. Digital
Dante, a project of Columbia
University's Institute for Learning Technologies, has been online for
six years.
Hundreds of artists from Botticelli to Blake have produced
illustrations for Dante's work, many of which are reproduced on the
Digital Dante site.
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