ABSTRACT
The Commedia may be extremely fertile ground for the study of late medieval visual culture, and Purgatorio may offer a self-conscious meditation on artistic media, but on the first of the seven terraces these diffuse materials are gathered into the very heart of Dante's treatment of hubris and humility. This chapter concentrates on two of several aspects of Augustine's pursuit of God that are of interest for the Ledge of Pride. First, the passage is rich with references to the Mosaic commandment against worshipping graven images. The first things that Virgil and the pilgrim encounter in Purgatory are precisely that: graven images, marble reliefs carved into the mountainside. Secondly, Augustine's interrogation of the natural world in search of the object of his desire rests on an ancient model of aesthetics in which beauty and voice are conflated. This has interesting implications for Dante's description of the reliefs as visible speech and for the nature of the pilgrim's aesthetic experience.
