Dante Alighieri's medieval epic Divine Comedy became a very popular source of motifs in 19th-century France, from which artists drew ideas for their works. Gustave Doré and his illustrations had a strong influence on readers, especially of Dante's Hell. Comparing the individual motifs, such as Dante, the entrance of hell, Paolo and Francesca, squanderers, shadows and Ugolino, we find out that Doré followed the written word quite closely, he extracted and depicted the most important moment of each chapter. In contrary Auguste Rodin, in his life project The Gates of Hell, combined all the motifs and with that he offered the possibility of a personal interpretation, which does not require the viewer's knowledge of the literary original.
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