Dante Alighieri’s literary work The Divine Comedy is a poem about a 35-year-old Dante’s journey through hell and into paradise, with the spirit of Virgil as his guide. It’s the night of Good Friday and through the different levels of hell they meander deeper, watching and observing the suffering of different souls. Their sufferings are commensurate with the degree of sin they have committed while they were still in the living world. By dawn of Easter Sunday, Dante and Virgil finally reach the upper world where they are welcomed by a blanket of stars hovering above them.
Matteo Berton from Pisa, Italy, has expressed his own take on Alighieri’s comedy in the form of digital illustrations.
Berton named his project after the comedy’s Italian translation: La Divina Commedia.
Utilizing mostly modern style painting with bits of cubism here and there, it’s also noticeable how he chose to use only a maximum of 3-4 dominant colors: mostly monochromatic blues, whites, the occasional orange, and violets. His modern interpretation of Alighieri’s work has a lighter spin to it compared to other similar artworks, but without losing the dark, somewhat ‘diabolic’ vibe from the original literary masterpiece.
As an artist, Berton believes in the constant pursuit of research ‘through composition and shape’. His works of art span from children’s books, to comics, to editorial, and commercial illustration.
His works have been selected from the American Illustrator, Bologna Children’s Book Fair, and the Society of Illustrators.
Some of Berton’s clients include Edizioni Laterza, The New York Times, Fast Company, La Pasteque, Feltrinelli, and Eli edizioni.
To see more of Matteo Berton, visit his pages:
http://facebook.com/matteberton
http://twitter.com/matteberton
http://matteoberton.tumblr.com/
http://linkedin.com/pub/matteo-berton/67/a49/489