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Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture

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Kudzanai Chiurai, Charity (2013)

April 28, 2022 By Sephora Affa, FSU '24

pop-art-naomi-campbell-charles-taylor-mia-farrow-pink-building-background

“Dante echoes Saint Paul (Rom. 5:1-5) when he shows charity as born of hope, in turn generated by faith. These three virtues sum up all the celestial philosophy and constitute the very condition of salvation. Within the doctrinal field, the word indicates the fundamental attitude of the Father towards all His creatures, a relationship that finds its perfect form in the blessed [. . .] (Purgatorio, Canto XV, 71).”

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

To learn more about the Zimbabwean artist and activist Kudzanai Chiurai, see Wikipedia. Read an interview with the artist about his related 2012 video work Iyeza on the RISD Museum blog.

 

 

Categories: Visual Art & Architecture
Tagged with: 2013, Africa, Art Books, Charity, Christianity, Collages, Pop Culture, Purgatorio, St. Paul, Zimbabwe

Pélagie Gbaguidi, Sacrifice (2013)

April 28, 2022 By Sephora Affa, FSU '24

red-script-on-black-drawing-figures“Sacrifice—it appears twice in the usual sense of ‘solemn offer of victims and gifts’ made to godheads. In a broader sense, it refers to any offer, real or symbolic, material or spiritual, made to God: ‘Even as thine own Angels of their will/ Make sacrifice to thee, Hosanna singing, /So many all men make the sacrifice of theirs’ (Purgatorio, Canto XI, 11). In particular, the vow is described as a sacrifice, insofar as its formulation obliges the man, standing before the divinity, to perform or not perform a given action, thus offering to God one’s own freedom of choice. It is Beatrice who clarifies to Dante what the importance of the vow is, as a spontaneous sacrifice and offering to God: ‘closing between God and man the compact, /A sacrifice is of this treasure made’ (Paradiso, Canto V, 29).”

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

For more information on Pélagie Gbaguidi, see Wikipedia. For more on the artist’s body of work, see AWARE, the Archive of Women Artists, Research, and Exhibitions.

Categories: Visual Art & Architecture
Tagged with: 2013, Africa, Art Books, Beatrice, Belgium, Benin, Brussels, God, Paradiso, Purgatorio, Senegal

Nabil Boutros, Liberty (2013)

April 28, 2022 By Sephora Affa, FSU '24

visual-poetry-nabil-boutros-liberty-if-desire

“The words that Virgil speaks to Cato (De Monarchia II, V, 15) mark both the origin and the end of the quest undertaken by Dante, at the end of the quest undertaken by Dante, at the end of which he poses a clear antithesis between ‘servitude’ and ‘liberty’: ‘Thou from a slave hast brought me unto freedom’ (Paradiso, Canto XXXI, 85).

[. . .] In this process of discernment through which freedom is achieved, man is supported by will, i.e. ‘the power that wills’ (Purgatorio, Canto XXI, 105), and aided by reason, i.e. ‘the power that counsels’ (Purgatorio, Canto XVIII, 62).”

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

Learn more about the Cairo-born artist Nabil Boutros on the artist’s website.

Categories: Visual Art & Architecture, Written Word
Tagged with: 2013, Africa, Art Books, Cairo, Cato, Desire, Egypt, Freedom, Liberty, Paradiso, Prose, Purgatorio, Virgil

“San Valentino, cade un taboo: Dante e Beatrice si baciano”

April 8, 2022 By Harrison Betz, FSU '25

dante_and_beatrice_kiss

“Dopo oltre 700 anni dalla nascita del loro amore, Dante e Beatrice cederanno alla tentazione e si lasceranno travolgere dalla passione facendo cadere tutti i taboo del dolce stilnovo. Un bacio, vero, per festeggiare tutti gli innamorati e promuovere la cultura. E per farlo hanno scelto il week end di San Valentino e due location d’eccezione: le grotte dell’Angelo di Pertosa (SA), le uniche in Europa a essere attraversate da un fiume navigabile, e la Certosa di San Lorenzo Padula (SA), complesso monastico tra i più grandi del vecchio continente, entrambe nominate patrimonio dell’Umanità dall’UNESCO, dove da anni vanno in scena i celebri spettacoli L’Inferno e Il Purgatorio di Dante.

“‘E’ un omaggio a tutti gli innamorati attraverso una coppia simbolo della letteratura italiana – dichiara Domenico Maria Corrado, regista e ideatore degli spettacoli –  Un’iniziativa per certi versi provocatoria, ma che in realtà vuole rendere più accattivante la cultura celebrando l’amore. Dai tempi di Dante ad oggi molte cose sono mutate e quindi anche la cultura deve sperimentare nuove strade.'” [. . .]    —Italia Chiama Italia.It, February 7, 2013 (retrieved April 8, 2022)

Categories: Performing Arts, Places
Tagged with: 2013, Beatrice, Dante, Inferno, Italy, Kiss, Love, Paradiso, Performances, Purgatorio, Valentine's Day

Divinity and damnation — why Dante still matters Article, Financial Times (2021)

March 30, 2022 By Harrison Betz, FSU '25

robert_chandler_article_screenshot

“‘Onorate l’altissimo poeta!’ — ‘Honour the supreme poet!’ In Dante’s Divine Comedy, these words are said of Virgil, Dante’s guide through Hell and Purgatory. Now, 700 years after Dante’s death on September 14, 1321, it seems more right than ever to apply the words to Dante himself.

“Dante’s reputation has never stood higher. He has been revered by an extraordinary number of the greatest poets and writers of the past hundred years — Eliot, Pound, Joyce, Beckett, Borges, Montale, and the great Armenian poet Yeghishe Charents, to name only a few.” [. . .]    –Robert Chandler, Financial Times, September 28, 2021 (retrieved March 30, 2022)

Chandler’s article, published originally in the British newspaper Financial Times, goes on to review three Dante-related books: Dante by Alessandro Barbero, a translation of Purgatorio by D.M. Black, and Visions of Heaven by Martin Kemp. View our posts for each of these by clicking their respective links. The full text of the article is available here.

Categories: Written Word
Tagged with: 2021, 700th anniversary, Articles, Dante, Dante's Biography, Newspapers, Purgatorio, Reviews, United Kingdom

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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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