Western art history is a mainstay of the Robert Langdon series, with the lives and works of its most prominent artists forming the structure of the mazes Langdon is forced to navigate in each novel. In Inferno, the central recognized artist is Dante Alighieri, author of the Divine Comedy, and nearly all of the artworks Langdon encounters on his journey are somewhat related to the life and times of Dante.

The structure of the novel itself reflects that of the Divine Comedy. As with the Comedy, Brown’s Inferno can be divided into three parts: the first in Florence reflecting Dante’s Inferno, the second in Venice reflecting Purgatorio, and the third in Istanbul reflecting Paradiso. In the Divine Comedy, Dante is accompanied by the Roman poet Virgil through Hell and Purgatory, but Virgil departs at the summit of Mount Purgatory because, being a pagan, he is not permitted beyond that point. Dante is instead accompanied by the figure of his unrequited love, Beatrice Portinari, through Heaven. Notably, Virgil tells Dante at the beginning of the Comedy that it was Beatrice who commissioned him to bring Dante through the realms of Hell and Purgatory, and thus she masterminds his entire journey through the afterlife.