Dante Today

Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture

Illuminating Dante Exhibit at the University of Arkansas

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“Presented from October 5-31, the exhibit consists of 22 items from Special Collections, including a recently acquired 1520 exemplar of the Divine Comedy with commentary by Cristoforo Landino, one full-page woodcut illustration, and 98 smaller woodcuts introducing each canto. Also on view are various editions of Dante’s masterpiece in Italian and English, with illustrations by Gustave Doré and John Flaxman, and works connected to or inspired by the Divine Comedy, including a collection of poems by Vittoria Colonna (1548) and a treatise by Lucrezia Marinella (1601).

“The exhibit includes medieval, early modern, and modern illustrations of the Divine Comedy, ranging from 13th-century illuminations to Sandro Botticelli’s and William Blake’s illustrations. Finally, the exhibit displays works that explore the reception of Dante’s masterpiece across cultural contexts, with works from countries including Spain and France. Examples from the African American community are represented, as well.” [. . .]    — University of Arkansas News, October 5, 2021

See more information about the exhibit here.

Visions of Dante Exhibit Highlighting Cornell University’s Fiske Dante Collection

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“Marking the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death, the exhibition of approximately 100 works in various media explores the visual nature of the Divine Comedy, which has inspired scholars and artists alike, from medieval times through today.

“Visions of Dante not only puts on display a large portion of the Fiske Collection for the first time. It also brings together works lent by notable institutions like the Morgan Library & Museum and 20th century and contemporary artists from William Blake to Salvador Dalí, Robert Rauschenberg, and Kara Walker.

“‘This exhibition reasserts the continued vibrancy of the Divine Comedy as a work of art, a work of literature, and shows the many ways in which visual artists have made their own personal interpretations and translations of that original text,’ says co-curator Andrew C. Weislogel, the Johnson’s Seymour R. Askin, Jr. ’47 Curator of Earlier European and American Art.” [. . .]    –Susan Kelley, Cornell Chronicle, September 29, 2021

The exhibit is held at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University and runs from September 14 – December 19, 2021.

See more information and view an online version of the exhibit here.

Remembering young victims of mafia violence

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This poster on the window of a school in Bologna (Via Saragozza, 9), Italy, explains that the stars are the names and ages of young children who have been recently killed in mafia violence.  The quotation (“rivedere le stelle”) is from the last verse of Inferno.

Contributed by Kate McKee (Bowdoin, ’22)

Dante’s Pizzeria in The Handmaid’s Tale (S04E05)

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The fourth season of Hulu’s dystopian drama The Handmaid’s Tale (based on Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel of the same name) features two characters roaming the ruins of a bombed-out Chicago (episode 5, “Chicago,” 2021). While attempting to trade resources with other rebels, the two handmaids find themselves hiding from Gilead soldiers in the wreckage of Chicago’s Dante’s Pizzeria. Below, a still from the show (which you can watch here, Hulu subscription required):

See our previous post for Dante’s Pizzeria, with two Chicago locations, here.

How to Cite

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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