Federico Zuccari, a late Mannerist painter from the Marches, active mainly in Rome and Florence, created the series of drawings known as “Dante historiato” during his sojourn in Spain as court painter to Philip II (1586 to 1588). The most comprehensive and complete cycle of illustrations ever to be dedicated to the three cantiche, this ambitious endeavour had no commercial aims. Its scholarly character derives from the academic circles of late 16th-century Florence frequented by Zuccari, which were characterized by an intense debate on the encounter between the visual arts and literature, also from a philosophical-scientific and theological-doctrinal standpoint.

Also connected to these circles was Giovanni Stradano, a Flemish painter active in Florence, who, in the same period, produced a series of twenty-six drawings taken from the Divine Comedy, albeit limited to the Inferno. Stradano’s plates, which are more dramatic, focusing more on the figures than on the landscapes, are also the first to combine the primary story-arcs – observed by Dante during the various stages of his journey – with the secondary story-arcs or narrative digressions exploring episodes during the earthly existence of some of the characters encountered by Dante in Hell.