The Florentine: “Uffizi Pays Tribute To Dante With A Tree-Centric Exhibition”

“The City of Florence and the Uffizi Galleries are paying tribute to Dante Alighieri during the 700th anniversary year of the Florentine poet’s death with a maxi-tree installation and exhibition dedicated to Piedmontese artist Giuseppe Penone. Abete (Fir) will be inaugurated in Piazza della Signoria on March 25, the date when Dante is believed to have started writing his Divine Comedy and the date that the Italian government has dedicated to the writer as a symbol of Italian culture worldwide. The 22-metre-high tree by Penone is a preview of the Dante-centric contemporary art exhibition, which is scheduled to run at the Uffizi from June 1 to September 12. The title of the Uffizi show, Alberi In-Versi (Trees In-Verses), refers to a line in Dante’s Paradiso: ‘albero che vive della cima’ (18.28-30: ‘that tree / that thrives from summit down’). The verse pictures a place where the corporeal and conceptual worlds meet.” [. . .]    –Editorial Staff, The Florentine, March 10, 2021