Botticelli, Courtauld Gallery review ★★★★★

In 1481, Sandro Botticelli sat down in his Florentine studio, dug out his manuscript of Dante's Divine Comedy, and some sheets of vellum, and began to illustrate. He drew angels, winged devils, punished souls; he angelic choirs, Jacob's ladder, the twelve apostles. In total, there are 92 of these exquisite illustrations, from Purgatorio to Paradiso and Inferno.

Fast forward 401 years: Queen Victoria is furious, because the Berlin Prints and Drawing Museum has purchased almost all of the drawings from the Duke of Hamilton, as well as his peerless collection of illuminated manuscripts.

The Courtauld Gallery's exhibition returns these treasures to British soil, exhibiting around thirty of Botticelli's original drawings. Many other treasures will be on display, among them the exquisitely illuminated, 14th century Hamilton Bible.

The Divine Comedy has inspired many works of art, but none quite like these. Rather than the grisly, lurid scenes depicted by Rodin, or William Blake or Gustave Doré, Botticelli's illustrates with a calm and steady hand. Devoid of colour and rendered in a plain, graphic style, these illustrations are things of beauty and simplicity.

The drawings are very rarely exhibited. Seize your chance to see them up close.