Dante Today

Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture

“Aurora Dante Paradiso”

By

packaging-of-the-paradiso-themed-pen

“Among the founding fathers of the Italian language, Dante Alighieri plays a fundamental role.
Through his most important work, The Divine Comedy, he is a source of inspiration
for lovers of art and literature.

Aurora is proud to present the latest Limited Edition dedicated to the Divine Comedy: Dante Paradiso. The final destination of Dante’s journey, which began with the Dante Inferno Pen and ended in the 700th year of the death of the Supreme Poet with Dante Paradiso.

Paradise is the third of the three canticles that make up Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, after Hell and Purgatory. Eternal bliss dwells in Paradise: souls contemplate the divinity of God and are full
of grace. As Dante ascends, the brightness increases around him, and Beatrice’s smile increases
becomes more and more dazzling.

The edition pen in only 1265 pieces, is made of white lacquer with cap and pink gold metallic grip section. Careful details of the decorations of the laurel leaves and the tricolor are present on the ring of the bottom section. The serial number is engraved on the headband while on the top we find the engraving of Dante Alighieri’s face. 18 kt solid gold nib. golden rose. The nib, the real flagship of the Aurora production, made in house, uses a rich range of writing sizes to satisfy all the tastes of calligraphy lovers.
The most special nibs (stub, italic, BB, flex and Goccias) must be ordered as they require extra days for their availability.

“The pen is scheduled for release in the first days of September 2021″   —”Aurora Dante Paradiso,” Stilograph Corsani, September 2021 (retrieved on March 24, 2024)

The Divine Comedy Illustrated by Mimmo Paladino (2021)

By

“Sergio Risaliti, director of the Museo Novecento in Florence and curator of the contemporary art section at the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte in Naples, has seized on the importance of the anniversary to devise an ambitious project: a special edition of The Divine Comedy illustrated by artist Mimmo Paladino. The volume, published by Forma Edizioni, is enriched with essays by Cristina Acidini and Giorgio Bacci, as well as boasting the collaboration of Riccardo Bruscagli, an expert on Dante and professor emeritus of Italian literature at the University of Florence.

[…]

“How do the images connect with the words? What do they want to give back to the reader?

“Dante is a plastic and figurative poet; we could call him, today, a contemporary film director. In the Divine Comedy there are very powerful images that return a strong visual impact. We think of Paolo and Francesca, so overwhelmed by their love, embraced and entwined allinfinity, here Dante was writing making images alive. Paladino, taking his cue from Dante’s immense figurative repertoire, brings with his illustrations other solicitations, going beyond the limit of words and adding his portion of space and meaning.”    — Antonio Mirabelli, “The Divine Comedy illustrated by Mimmo Paladino. Interview with the creator, Sergio Risaliti”, Finestre sull’Arte, March 23rd, 2021.

The Dantean Prints of Ebba Holm and Klaus Wrage (1920s)

By

(Klaus Wrage, 1923)

“To mark the occasion of the 700th anniversary of the death of Italian poet and philosopher Dante Alighieri (1265–321) the Kupferstichkabinett is showing selections from two woodcut series from the 1920s.

“The series are by the Danish artist Ebba Holm and the German Klaus Wrage. Both deal in multifaceted ways with Dante’s literary magnum opus The Divine Comedy – and thereby with his virtual journey through hell, up the purgatorial mountain and on to paradise.”    — “Hell’s Black and Starlight / Dante’s Divine Comedy in Modern and Contemporary Art”, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 1920s.

“Avati starts shooting Dante after 18 years”

By

pupi-avati

“Award-winning director Pupi Avati is set to start shooting a biopic on Dante on the 700th anniversary of the ‘Supreme Poet’s death, a project he has been nurturing for 18 years.

“‘I had it all clear in my mind in 2003, but never [got] anyone to say yes. Then, 18 years later, I finally got the go ahead,’ Avati said Monday.

“The film is based on fellow great poet Boccaccio’s account of his more illustrious predecessor, and sees Giulio Pizzirani as old Dante dying in Ravenna and then Boccacio, played by Sergio Castellitto, retracing the poet’s steps back to his native Florence, meeting all the figures who helped him or hindered him in his exile.

“Young Dante is played by Alessandro Sperduti.

“Avati, whose previous credits include the two giallo masterpieces, The House with Laughing Windows (1976) and Zeder (1983), said “making the film in the Italy of today, where hierarchies of who and what counts are dictated by very different things, seems unreal. I still can’t believe it.”   —ROME, “Avati starts shooting Dante after 18 years,” ANSA, June 28, 2021 (retrieved March 6, 2024)

Laborintus II

By

laborintus-2

“Laborintus II, composed in 1965, was commissioned by the French Television to celebrate the 700th anniversary of Dante’s birth. It takes its title from the poetic collection Laborintus by Edoardo Sanguineti.
The text of Laborintus II develops certain themes from Dante’s Vita nuova, Convivio, and Divina Commedia, combining them – mainly through formal and semantic analogies – with Biblical texts and texts by T. S. Eliot, Pound and Sanguineti himself.”

“The main formal reference of Laborintus II is the catalogue, in its medieval meaning (like the Etymologies of Isodore of Seville, for instance, also appearing in Laborintus), which combines the Dantesque themes of memory, death and usury – that is, the reduction of all things to market value. Individual words and sentences are sometimes to be regarded as autonomous entities, and sometimes to be perceived as part of the sound structure as a whole.”

“The principle of the catalogue is not limited to the text: it underlies the musical structure as well. Laborintus II is a catalogue of references, attitudes and elementary instrumental techniques; a rather didactic catalogue, like a school book dealing with Dantesque visions and musical gestures. The instrumental parts are developed mainly as an extension of the vocal actions of singers and speakers, and the short section of electronic music is conceived as an extension of the instrumental actions.”

“Laborintus II is a theatre work; it can be treated as a story, an allegory, a documentary, a dance. It can be performed in a school, in a theatre, on television, in the open air, or in any other place permitting the gathering of an audience.”    –Luciano Berio

Read more about Laborintus II and Luciano Berio here.

Contributed by Gianluca Giuseffi Grippa

Recent Dante Citings

Categories

Submit a Sighting

All submissions will be considered for posting. Bibliographic references and scholarly essays are also welcome for consideration.

How to Cite

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

Creative