The Empyrean (Rosa Celeste) Illustration for Paradiso, Canto 31, La Divina Commedia

The Empyrean is Doré's illustration for Canto 31 of Paradiso, the final book of Dante Alighieri's La Divina Commedia(The Divine Comedy, c. 1308–1321). The Empyrean is the Highest Heaven of Dante's heavenly structure. The two silhouetted figures are Dante and his guide Beatrice looking up at the Saints and Angels. The Empyrean appears in Paradiso, the third book of Dante's The Divine Comedy (1320), after Inferno and Purgatorio, as a destination for Dante's long journey of the soul. It is widely considered among the most sublime and technically extraordinary images in the entire 135-plate series, and one of the greatest illustrations of literary text ever produced in any medium.