Wednesday, July 12, 2023

Interview with Dante's curator at the National Gallery of Art


At the entrance to Going Through Hell: The Divine Dante at the National Gallery of Art/By Patricia Leslie

Before the show closes Sunday in the West Building of the National Gallery of Art, come and see Dante's Hell and the effects of his poem, The Divine Comedy, on artists and writers which they created over several centuries.  


By two years Covid delayed the opening of Going Through Hell: The Divine Dante which the Gallery had originally planned to celebrate in 2021, the 700th anniversary of The Divine Comedy's publication, but the disease could not stop the show.


Gretchen Hirschauer, curator of Italian and Spanish paintings for the National Gallery of Art who curated the Dante show, with the
 Allegorical Portrait of Dante, late 16th century, National Gallery of Art, Samuel H. Kress Collection/By Patricia  Leslie

In the painting above, the National Gallery of Art describes Dante looking across the water at small figures walking along the elevated circles of Purgatory, where souls await purification before admission to Paradise. 

And rather than patting Dr. Hirschauer on the head as it appears above, Dante's right hand in the allegory hovers over the bell tower and cathedral (Duomo) of Florence, illuminated from below by flickering flames, perhaps of Hell itself, the portrait which you must see in person. 

According to the Gallery, Dante holds in the painting a large manuscript copy of his poem opened to the 25th Canto of Paradise which focuses on his hope and longing to return to the place of his birth, Florence.

 Detail of Allegorical Portrait of Dante
Detail of Allegorical Portrait of Dante


Gustave Dore, 1832-1883, Dante’s Inferno, 1880, National Gallery of Art, gift of Huntington Cairns  “From the mouth of each [hole] projected the feet of a sinner and his legs as far as the calf…their soles on fire, because of which their joints were twitching so hard that they could have snapped ropes….” (The white circles of light are ceiling lights reflected in protective glass covering the drawing.)
 Gy. Szabó Béla, 1905-1985,  Dante: L'enfer, Chant XXI, Ongles sales (Dante's Inferno, Canto XXI, Nasty Claws), 1963, National Gallery of Art, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Le Bovit.

“The sinner sank under and rose again, rump up; but the devils, who were under cover of the bridge, cried….”  That is Virgil in the foreground, identified by the laurel wreath on his head, overlooking a black pit of bubbling liquid where demons gather and aim their pitchforks at politicians to keep them in line. (Hmmm...perhaps another use for the Capitol Reflecting Pool?)



Gretchen Hirschauer, curator of Italian and Spanish paintings for the Gallery who curated the show from the Gallery's collection, sat down for an interview.


When Covid hit, "we were closed at least a year. I was very pleased when we started back to work to learn that the Gallery wanted to continue" the show which includes 20 works of art  from the 15th to 20th centuries, created by artists inspired by Dante to depict compositions and scenes based on the Comedy. 


The poem traces the writer's journey through Hell, Purgatory and then to Paradise, accompanied initially by the poet, Virgil, and lastly by "Beatrice" (not Dante's wife).

William Blake, 1757-1827, The Circle of the Thieves: Agnolo Brunelleschi Attacked by a Six-Footed Serpent, 1827, National Gallery of Art, Rosenwald Collection

On his journey in Hell, Dante (above left in dark flowing robe with his guide, Virgil) saw the thief Brunelleschi who had been captured by a serpent: “On his shoulders behind the nape lay a dragon with outstretched wings that sets on fire whomever it encounters.”

And probably the most gruesome illustration is detail from an illustration, below. I don't know about you, but I'm going to try and stay out of Hell. That ending looks rather unbearable and painful.
Italian 15th Century, The Inferno, after the Fresco in the Camposanto of Pisa, c. 1480/1500, engraving, National Gallery of Art, Rosenwald Collection
Detail of The Inferno, after the Fresco in the Camposanto of Pisa, c. 1480/1500, engraving, National Gallery of Art, Rosenwald Collection

Someone mentioned to Hirschauer that Dante's themes were "an evergreen topic; the whole notion of love and lost love and the journey to the afterlife, and everyone's fears and hopes for it.


"It’s timeless which is one of the reasons Dante is still so well known and popular," Hirschauer said.


"It’s always interesting when I go back and read something he wrote.  He wrote this 700 yrs ago, and it sounds like a story we could have been talking about yesterday."


And indeed we are, and talking about it tomorrow and the next day and the ...


Auguste Rodin, 1840-1917, The Thinker (Le Penseur), model 1880, cast 1901, bronze, National Gallery of Art, gift of Mrs. John W. Simpson
Four thinkers at Divine Dante, National Gallery of Art, with a representation of Rodin's Gates of Hell behind them, July 3, 2023/By Patricia Leslie 


William Blake, 1757-1827, The Circle of the Lustful: Paolo and Francesca, 1827, engraving, National Gallery of Art, Rosenwald Collection, showing the adulterious couple
 swept away by desire from canto V of Inferno.  Francesca's husband murdered them both but what happened to the husband?  Now that would be a novel!  See also at the exhibition, Rodin's The Kiss based on the two lovers.

Hirschauer has read the Divine Comedy several times, in English and Italian, the latter which - surprise! - is harder than English, she said.


"He wrote this [the Comedy] after he was exiled, but we don’t really know for sure when he wrote it.  He was exiled earlier on and then for life later.  It took many years for him to finish it."


Dante's expressions reflect the hell and depression he endured while wandering the world suffering the losses of his greatest loves: Beatrice and Florence, the former, his lifelong idolization of the woman who captured his fancy beginning when he was nine years old, and the latter, his beloved birthplace  which banished him twice, once for two years for his failure to pay a fine, and the last, for  "public corruption, fraud, falsehood, fraud, malice, unfair extortion practices, illegal proceeds, pederasty ..." condemning him to death by fire if he returned!


It is possible that Beatrice was a figment of his imagination who grew more attractive to Dante over the years.


Robert Rauschenberg, Drawings for Dante's 700 Birthday, II.B, 1965, National Gallery of Art, gift of the Woodward Foundation

Visitors view books and illustrations at Divine Dante, National Gallery of Art, July 3, 2023/By Patricia Leslie 

Hirschauer:  It's "not a fact that they ever were lovers or spent any time together. [Beatrice was also married to someone else.] Maybe he fell in love with the ideal woman, when he was nine.  I am sure he idealized her. She died young, when she was 25" leaving him "very despondent.


"He started writing this more than 10 years after she died, when he was about 35, but we don't know really when he started.  It may have taken him 15 years [to write]."


He was middle-aged and experiencing a crisis in his life,  Hirschauer said.  


In his Nine Circles of Hell, Dante (1265-1321) ranks treachery and traitors as the worst kinds of sin, because, Dr. Hirschauer believes,"he himself was exiled from Florence.


"He was a very proud Florentine and he loved his city very much and he feels (I can’t speak for him, but) betrayed by the city he loved so much. I think that’s why he put traitors at the very bottom because of the wrong that was done to him."


(It took the City of Florence 700 years - until 2008 - to rescind Dante's sentencing of death.)


Beginning with a ceiling illuminated in red, two galleries usher visitors in to explore displays, books, maps, and statues like The Thinker (1880, 1901) by Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) who was inspired by the first part of the Comedy, the Inferno which he sculpted for his The Gates of Hell, two bronze doors found now in Philadelphia and Paris at the Rodin museums.  


(At the Gallery, a lifesized photograph of the doors stands behind the The Thinker who may have been modeled on Dante himself.)


Dante's themes of love, rejection, and justice are those experienced by every adult at one time or another. 


Is life a comedy? My cousin sometimes wonders if Hell is life on Earth!  


Come to the show and shed light on your own life and, by all means, when entering your afterlife, pass Hell, pass Purgatory and go straight to Paradise. Tell them Dante sent you.


The Divine Comedy has been translated into more than 50 languages.



What: Going Through Hell: The Divine Dante 

When: Through July 16, 2023. The National Gallery hours are 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily.

Where: West Building, Main Floor, Galleries 10 and 11, National Gallery of Art, 6th and Constitution, Washington

How much: Admission is always free at the National Gallery of Art.

Metro stations for the National Gallery of Art:
Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, or L'Enfant Plaza

For more information: (202) 737-4215

Accessibility information: (202) 842-6905

patricialesli@gmail.com

At Divine Dante, National Gallery of Art, July 3, 2023/By Patricia Leslie



 


 

 

 

 

 

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