“In Visions of Heaven, renowned scholar Martin Kemp investigates Dante’s supreme vision of divine light and its implications for the visual artists who were the inheritors of Dante’s vision. The whole book may be regarded as a new Paragone (comparison), the debate that began in the Renaissance about which of the arts is superior. Dante’s ravishing accounts of divine light set painters the severest challenge, which took them centuries to meet. A major theme running through Dante’s Divine Comedy, particularly in its third book, the Paradiso, centres on Dante s acts of seeing (conducted according to optical rules with respect to the kind of visual experience that can be accomplished on earth) and the overwhelming of Dante s earthly senses by heavenly light, which does not obey his rules of earthly optics. [. . .] Published to coincide with the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death, this hugely original book combines a close reading of Dante’s poetry with analysis of early optics and the art of the Renaissance and Baroque to create a fascinating, wide-ranging and visually exciting study.” — Amazon (retrieved October 18, 2021)
Visions of Dante Exhibit Highlighting Cornell University’s Fiske Dante Collection
“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.
Giuseppe Verdi, Laudi alla Vergine Maria (1888)
“Laudi alla Vergine Maria is Movement 3, for women’s voices, of Giuseppe Verdi’s Quattro Pezzi Sacri (Four Sacred Pieces, 1888). The text is taken from the opening lines of Canto 33 of Paradiso.” —Wikipedia
Valentino Love Lab, 2019 Holiday Collection
For the holiday season in 2019, Valentino Garavani introduced a capsule collection featuring the final verse of Paradiso 33: “L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.” The verse appeared on shoes, hats, wallets, and purses.
Temple St. Clair’s “Astrid” Bracelet and Ring
18K gold bracelet by jeweller Temple St. Clair, featured on the site The Picket Fence: “The inside of the bracelet features an intimate detail: an inscription of the last verse of Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy–– Amor Che Move Il Sole E L’Altre Stelle (The love that moves the sun and other stars).” —The Picket Fence
The image above also features the matching ring, available at The Editorialist: “Marrying science and art, the Astrid Ring unfolds like an astronomical model of the cosmos, revealing multiple rings that can be worn on the finger, or around the neck as a pendant. Engraved with symbols representing the planets, as well as the last verse of Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy—’Amor Che Move Il Sole E L’Altre Stelle’ (The love that moves the sun and other stars)—this timeless ring expresses the belief that it is love that moves the universe.” —The Editorialist
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