Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture
Summoning Curses is a collaborative album between bands Suðri and Atel. The cover art of this album features Gustave Doré’s illustration, Ugolino and Gaddo. This illustration is Doré’s imaging of canto 33 from the Inferno.
Find the album here.
Find the illustration here.
Contributed by Gianluca Giuseffi Grippa.
Beyond All Temples and Myths is a 1999 album by the heavy metal band, Winds of Sirius. The album art is an altered version of the 1961 Gustave Doré painting, Dante and Virgil in the Ninth Circle of Hell.
Many of the song titles are biblical references as well, including; “The Light Beyond,” “Wise Men Keep Silent,” and “Everlasting Souls.”
Buy the album here.
Read more about the painting here.
Contributed by Gianluca Giuseffi Grippa.
“Anyone familiar with the Western Literary Canon knows that the list of writers whose work has been informed by Dante is practically endless. My students cannot adequately understand most books from the past—as well as many books written in our own time—without knowing Dante. As a professor, I cannot teach a course in literature without frequent discussion of Dante, even if he is not on the syllabus. Dante is the elephant in the room.”
[. . .]
“It is safe to conclude that without Dante, these few works of fiction and poetry (along with many others) written over the past seven centuries would not exist—certainly not in the ingenious, artful forms they exist in currently. Though it may be impossible to state with any accuracy or completeness the enormous debt art and literature of the past and present owes to Dante, it is necessary to try.” –Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, Church Life Journal
Read the article here.
“In book IV of Virgil’s Aeneid, Dido, long in grief over her late husband Sychaeus’s death, is suddenly awakened from emotional slumber by the visiting Trojan hero Aeneas. In an upheaval of emotion, she proclaims, ‘Agnosco veteris vestigia flammae,’ or ‘I recognize the traces of an ancient fire.'”
“The quote resurfaces in Dante’s Divine Comedy. The overarching allegory of this epic poem traces themes of Dante’s spiritual quest through symbolism. Dante, guided by Virgil, achieves literary immortality through the act of storytelling that appropriates and amalgamates references to antiquity, classical literature, mythology, Christianity, and (then) contemporary Italian politics. In Purgatorio 30, Dante feels the presence of Beatrice and matches his emotional upheaval to that of Dido. Dante makes a final tribute to Virgil by stating, ‘conosco i segni de l’antica fiamma’ – an Italian translation of the Latin ‘Agnosco veteris vestigia flammae.’”
[. . .]
“Dante appropriates explicit cultural references and symbols as a tool to weave the narrative of the Divine Comedy. However, when I was collecting the source material for Vestigia Flammae, I abandoned explicit quotation. Rather, I tried my hand at writing imagined faux folk, modal, and fanfare-like source-music that could be mistaken for something pre-existing.”
“Artworks of Danielius Sodeika are self-purposed. He doesn‘t make them for himself nor others. They appear to be more like questions leaning towards, like the way to check up if the impulse of the vector has continuance.”
“Small-scale sculptural objects from wood, metal, household elements or findings. With their form they remind religious, cultural or archetypal symbols. Storyline is more than in the objects themselves, but also in the spaces between – as signs of invisible power – that tightens chain and breaks the log. Probably it is artist’s way to speak about finality and inevitable entropy – because when it comes – it dominates over all demolishes all other meanings.”
Explore Danielius Sodeika’s exhibit here.
“Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself a forest dark, For the straightforward pathway had been lost.” -Dante Alighieri
All submissions will be considered for posting. Bibliographic references and scholarly essays are also welcome for consideration.
Coggeshall, Elizabeth, and Arielle Saiber, eds. Dante Today: Citings and Sightings of Dante’s Works in Contemporary Culture. Website. Access date.
