Dante Today

Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture

Commemorative Coin Dedicated to Purgatorio (2022)

By

dante-silver-coin

(Image: ANSA)

“As a part of the celebrations commemorating the 700th anniversary of Dante Alighieri’s death, the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato is minting the second coin dedicated to the Supreme Poet and this literary work.

“Issued today by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the coin celebrates the Divine Comedy, and this year is dedicated to Purgatorio.

“The Brilliant Uncirculated coin is made of silver, with a face value of 5 euro and a circulation of 6000 pieces.

“The second ‘proof version’ is in gold, with a face value of 20 euro and a circulation of 1500 pieces.

“Designed by artist Claudia Momoni, on one side the coin depicts the profile of Dante Alighieri, inspired by a Sandro Botticelli work (private collection), with the inscription ‘REPUBBLICA ITALIANA’, closed by a star.

“On the reverse is a depiction of Purgatory surrounded by the sea, the sun and stars, on the top of which a wall of fire rises in the Divine Forest. The verse ‘PURO E DISPOSTO A SALIRE A LE STELLE’, a verse that closes the Purgatory canticle skirts its edge. On the right is the value ‘5 EURO’; on the left, ‘R,’ identifying the Rome Mint; at the bottom, the date ‘2022’, the year the coin was issued, and the artist’s signature ‘MOMONI.’ The presence of colour is unique to the silver version.”    –“A commemorative coin has been dedicated to Dante’s Purgatorio on the 700th anniversary of his death”, Il Globo, September 14, 2022

“Beauty Awakens the Soul to Act,” Painting by Luciana Palazzolo (2018)

By

Beauty-Awakens-Soul-to-Act-Luciana-Palazzolo-Abstract-Painting-Black-on-white-background

“Black shapes dance across the large paper surface. The texture and viscosity is not homogeneous, because this way I was able to plays with transparency and opaqueness.The close ups show that some areas have the acrylic paint diluted in an almost watercolor. Also I have used pencils of different hardness to draw the lines. This painting can be enjoyed horizontally or vertically. It would be shipped to the collector rolled up in a tube, which would cut down considerably the shipping cost.”   –“About the Artwork,” Saatchi Art

“I produced a Dante’s Inferno series, a Joy series influenced by the work of Pollock, at the moment I am working on an Entanglement theme, where the line represent our lives, the paths that we have taken or could have taken. The lighter pencil marks are choices we didn’t make, the darker ink ones the decisions we made and marks we made on people and events.”   –From Luciana Palazzolo’s profile on Saatchi Art

View more works by Luciana Palazzolo here.

Frank Schroeder, Dante’s Inferno (2018)

By

“Of this work, Schroeder writes: ‘After reading The Divine Comedy, I was interested in having my own version of Hell and its different circles… I wanted my version more like a play than a painting. I wanted to describe all the mixed feelings in Hell: justice, tears, cries, desperation, evil, suffering, redemption and sorrows. For me, Hell is not necessarily black and dark… The use of colors is also to illustrate the three parts of the poem: Hell, Purgatory and Heaven. My Inferno becomes a ballet where souls, evils, judgments and penalties are mixed… Maybe we can be better and win our place in Heaven walking through the Good and The Bad. Our souls can be delivered from evil through this long and hard journey. My Inferno is a theatre, a global vision of Hell and its circles, but also a sacred song of redemption.'”   —Artistic Interpretations: Frank Schroeder, Cornell University Library’s Visions of Dante Exhibition, curated by Andrew C. Weislogel and Laurent Ferri (2021; retrieved October 26, 2022)

Pascale Marthine Tayou, Sisiphe remontant le tarmac (2013)

By

sculpture-of-person-on-wheel-next-to-tarmac

“Miserere—In vulgar Latin, it is the first word of Psalm 50: ‘Miserere mei, Deus, secundum magnam misericordiam tuam,’ used in the Catholic liturgy in funeral services, in the rites of Lent and the Holy Week, and generally in the orations of penitence. The penitential psalm is sung in the Comedy by the rows of the dead, in the second terrace of Ante-Purgatory, and the chant, is recited in alternate verses (‘singing the “Miserere” verse by verse’ [Purgatorio, Canto V, 24]), is interrupted by an exclamation of astonishment when the souls realize from his shadow that Dante is alive. In a rather different context, however, the expression ‘Miserere mei’ is cried out by Dante at the appearance of Virgil’s shadow in the forest (Inferno, Canto I, 65).”

Retrieved from The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists by Simon Njami.

For more on the Cameroonian artist Pascale Marthine Tayou, see Wikipedia.

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