Albert Maignan (1845-1908), ‘Dante meets Matilda’, 1881“At the summit of Mount Purgatory
Albert Maignan (1845-1908), ‘Dante meets Matilda’, 1881“At the summit of Mount Purgatory is the Earthly Paradise or Garden of Eden. Allegorically, it represents the state of innocence that existed before Adam and Eve fell from grace – the state which Dante’s journey up Mount Purgatory has been recapturing. Here Dante meets Matilda, a woman whose literal and allegorical identity “is perhaps the most tantalizing problem in the Comedy.” Critics up to the early twentieth century have connected her with the historical Matilda of Tuscany, but others suggested a connection with the dream of Leah in Canto XXVII. However, Matilda clearly prepares Dante for his meeting with Beatrice, the woman to whom (historically) Dante dedicated his previous poetry, the woman at whose request (in the story) Virgil was commissioned to bring Dante on his journey, and the woman who (allegorically) symbolizes the path to God (Canto XXVIII).With Matilda, Dante witnesses a procession which forms an allegory within the allegory, somewhat like Shakespeare’s play within a play. It has a very different style from the Purgatorio as a whole, having the form of a masque, where the characters are walking symbols rather than real people.”Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purgatorio#The_Earthly_Paradise -- source link
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