A member of the Nazarenes, a group of German artists based in Rome aiming to bring the arts back to the purity of their origins in terms of religion and patriotism, Vogel painted this large Dantean icon during his second stay in Italy, which he dedicated to studying Dante. 

The painting is divided into scenes arranged on three registers in a cuspidate architectural frame recalling the Gothic facade of Orvieto cathedral. The poet is portrayed in the centre, seated on Beatrice’s tomb, in the act of receiving divine inspiration from above. Around him we can see three scenes from the Inferno in the lower register, four from Purgatory in the side compartments, and three from Paradise in the cusps. Surmounting the structure are statues of the pope and the emperor standing to either side of a central cross to symbolise the unifying role played by faith with regard to spiritual and temporal power.