Dante Today

Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture

Paolo Barbieri’s Illustration of the Commedia

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paolo-barbieri-illustraion-of-dantes-inferno“È uno degli illustratori di albi e copertine fantasy più apprezzati in Italia. Il suo volume precedente, ‘Favole degli dei’, omaggia i miti dell’antica Grecia. Ma stavolta il mantovano Paolo Barbieri punta più in alto, ridisegnando addirittura la cantica più celebre della letteratura italiana. ‘L’inferno di Dante’ (122 pagine, edizioni Mondadori) sarà presentato a Napoli giovedì 21 marzo nell’aula magna dell’Accademia di belle arti. Il volume (122 pagine edite da Mondadori ), in parte ispirato alle celebri e immortali illustrazioni ottocentesche di Gustave Doré, descrive gran parte delle ambientazioni e dei personaggi che il Sommo poeta incontra nella sua discesa agli inferi, accompagnato da Virgilio. Da Paolo e Francesca al conte Ugolino, passando per Ulisse e Cerbero, ogni tavola è anche accompagnata dalle terzine a cui è ispirata. La presentazione è curata dalla scuola Comix di via Atri, diretta da Mario Punzo. Come anche il successivo workshop (info e costi 081 459 643) che Paolo Barbieri terrà  nei due giorni successivi, venerdì 22 e sabato 23. In programma, la realizzazione di un’illustrazione a tema libero, in bianco e nero o a colori, da sviluppare successivamente in digitale.”    –Paolo de Luca, La Repubblica, March 2013

Contributed by Michael Hannaman (Bowdoin, ’13)

Saltier Prosciutto Fit for Dante’s Bread

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saltier-prosciutto-fit-for-dantes-bread

“A bite of Tuscan prosciutto is all you need to understand salt-free Tuscan bread, the stuff that Dante so deeply missed when he was in exile. Prosciutto Toscano is saltier and a bit spicier than prosciutto from Parma or San Daniele, so saltless bread is an excellent foil. And now you can see for yourself. After years of due diligence to comply with Department of Agriculture rules, the hams are being imported into the United States for the first time. They are different from other hams because of the somewhat smaller size of the pigs, which also have less fat, and the seasoning used in curing, which involves pepper and juniper as well as salt. ‘The texture is also drier than the others,’ said Cesare Casella, the Tuscan chef who is selling the ham in his shops. ‘It’s more like Spanish serrano ham’: $28 a pound at Salumeria Rosi Parmacotto on the Upper West Side and Upper East Side. Also at Eataly and Fairway.”    –Florence Fabricant, The New York Times, February 26, 2013

Pope Benedict XVI Resigns, February 11, 2013

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pope-benedict-xvi-resignsOn NBC’s Today Show the correspondent from Rome mentions that this is first resignation of a Pope since Celestine V in 1294, who Dante may have been indicating when he referred to the sinner among the Undecided (Inferno 3) who made the “great refusal.”
Many other reporters and commentators discussing Benedict XVI’s resignation are also mentioning Dante’s supposed (but debated among scholars) placement of Celestine V in Hell. See, for example, Carol Zaleski’s piece in the New York Times, February 11, 2013.

Contributed by Julie Heyman

Tim Burton, Beetlejuice (1988)

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tim-burton-beetlejuice-1998“In the film Beetlejuice there is a scene in which the character Beetlejuice is terrorizing the house residents, and the case worker, Juno, creates a distraction: Dante’s Inferno Room.”

Contributed by Christopher Beckham (University of Texas – Austin, ’16) and Karalee Shotola (University of Texas – Austin, ’16)

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Coggeshall, Elizabeth, and Arielle Saiber, eds. Dante Today: Citings and Sightings of Dante’s Works in Contemporary Culture. Website. Access date.

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