Dante Today

Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture

…and Thence We Came Forth To See Again The Stars, Group Exhibition

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“The Flat-Massimo Carasi gallery reopens its doors to the public, after the protracted closure due to Covid 19, with a collective that look forward for a restart. Convinced that the physical space of the gallery will resist the broadsides of innovations and will remain an essential point of meeting and sharing with the public, we recognize that no man / woman is an island even in its own solitude (a very crowded solitude). Art, in all its disciplines, remains the most enthralling mystery and witnessing its representations in first person will simply remain of VITAL importance. We identify the works of art with the stars, to which Dante refers and illuminate the dark, so in this context we have chosen for the end of the season program, a roundup of works that would like to shape a physiognomy of contemporary being with her/his passions and obsessions, between damnation and holiness, bewilderment and hope.These are works that refer to woman/man but do not portray her/him directly. Instead they evoke his presence by interpreting the fetishes that are left behind as traces. The invited artists, using new and traditional media, adopt the most varied techniques to grasp the human dimension with sometimes simple, or sometimes, categorical gestures.”   —Stefano Caimi, Michael Johansson, Guillaume Linard Osorio, Sali Muller, Jack Otway, Michelangelo Penso, Leonardo Ulian, …and Thence We Came Forth To See Again The Stars, Leonard Oulian, June 11-September 4, 2020 (retrieved on March 28, 2024)

“The Comedy in Quilt”

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“Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso by Dante Alighieri represented in 57 textile panels
A group of Italian quilters of all levels, inspired by the songs and descriptions of Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, interpreted and represented a group, a frame, a sky, a scene, a landscape, the pain suffered by the damned … creating a great story made of fabric, threads and colors. The images of these quilts evoke infernal sensations and more; in front of some you can ‘hear’ the screams of the damned, the smell of sulfur and the cries of devils, the expiation of those who have a fleeting memory of life and peace in contemplating divine power and wisdom.
“If in The Divine Comedy the dramatic and lyrical dimensions are expressed through the noble language of poetry, the purpose of the authors was to perceive them and try to translate them through the techniques of Quilt Art.
“Interpreting with fabric a great cornerstone of Italian literature such as Dante is not at all simple or obvious, but it certainly constitutes a great challenge. 26 the Artworks exhibited”   —Redazione, “The Comedy in Quilt,” Arte Morbida, Sep 25, 2021 (retrieved March 21, 2024)

Love, Watercolor by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1880s)

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“This watercolour is inscribed with a line from the Commedia (The Divine Comedy) by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321): ‘L’amor che muove il sole e l’altre stelle’ (The love that moves the sun and other stars’). It is a highly finished design for a large needlework panel, but now it is considered to be a great watercolour in its own right. Burne-Jones (1833-1898) made several such designs, some of which were worked up into tapestry or needlework by the young Frances Graham, with whom Burne-Jones later fell in love.

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“At the time of this painting, Burne-Jones was also working on his famous King Cophetua and the Beggar-maid. The model for the beggar-maid was Frances Graham, and Burne-Jones had fallen in love with her. In 1883, to his great dismay, she announced her impending marriage, and he painted in anenomes – the symbol of rejected love and death – around the figure of the beggar-maid. Here too, in Love, the colours of anemones predominate, rich scarlets and purples against cobalt and turquoise. Just as Dante lost his beloved Beatrice, and Rossetti his Lizzie, so Burne-Jones, on more than one occasion, lost his heart to those like Frances who were unable to return his love.”   —Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Love, Victoria & Albert Museum Collections, 1880s (retrieved March 26, 2024)

Franz von Stuck, Inferno

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“This painting’s title refers to Dante Alighieri’s medieval epic of a journey through hell. Although Stuck employed traditional symbols of the underworld—a snake, a demon, and a flaming pit—the dissonant colors and stylized, exaggerated poses are strikingly modern. He designed the complementary frame. Stuck’s imagery was likely inspired by Auguste Rodin’s The Gates of Hell, particularly the figure of The Thinker (see related works nearby). When Inferno debuted in an exhibition of contemporary German art at The Met in 1909, critics praised its ‘sovereign brutality.’ The picture bolstered Stuck’s reputation as a visionary artist unafraid to explore the dark side of the psyche.”   —Franz von Stuck, Inferno, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1908 (retrieved February 28, 2024)

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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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