[NetBehaviour] Dante and Leonardo
Max Herman
maxnmherman at hotmail.com
Tue Mar 2 22:20:09 CET 2021
Hi Alan,
Those are great examples of Byron, Chaucer, Joyce, etc. -- there are certainly many epic or epic-influenced works in English so I shouldn't over-generalize. Maybe I should just say that I have found reading Dante's epic form unique and refreshing, in many ways, contrary to what I was expecting.
Since my pandemic hobby has been reading, I got two books in the mail today: David Treuer's The Translation of Dr. Apelles and Dan-el Padilla Peralta's Divine Institutions: Religions and Community in the Middle Roman Republic. The latter has this interesting quote about Virgil (spelled Vergil?):
"That Roman theater-temples supplied spaces for the negotiation of 'identity and alterity' was already appreciated in antiquity. Vergil, for one, capitalized on the precedent of the mid-republican theater-temple to refract Roman imperial identity through the lens of the barbarian Other.... [B]y ramping up its commitment to theatrical culture in tandem with urban monumentalization, the Roman state sharply honed its capacity to project certain messages about itself and its citizens to the greater world."
The book uses a lot of network theory, and has a really interesting concept of "pilgrimage networks" that drew people to Rome in order to unify the state by means of the art, monuments, theaters, temples, etc. I haven't always thought of the ancient world from such a network standpoint before, and it is interesting to think of Dante as another phase in all that network evolution -- bringing the ancient content into the vernacular Italian, melding it with his own personal imagination and views, and making a place for it in the society and institutions of his own day.
Of course all of this network-building in ancient Rome had its obvious downsides. The ancient Roman project was driven in some ways by military need to consolidate control and justify domination. Dante's treatise De Monarchia is a confusing one in which he argues for a one-world government that has imperial connotations as well (though the terrible civil wars affecting Italy in his time make the wish for stability very understandable). Padilla Peralta associated the networks being established by ancient Rome as also supporting "epistemicide" where other traditions were persecuted. How can cultural changes avoid these downsides, and in fact ameliorate them?
Padilla Peralta also writes: "Quillin modeled the efficacy of fear as a means of motivating the Roman citizen body to recommit to military activity. Fear alone, though, was not enough; directed fear, fear with referents in view and clear consequences in mind, was what proved most decisive in the long run. For such fear to be managed successfully, there had to be a mechanism that perpetuated fear and at the same time reinforced a sense of strategic resolution and purpose. The monumental buildup of the Roman city, and the training of the citizen body through regularized cultic observance to attend ever-vigilantly to those spaces in which the gods were worshipped, created conditions for the (re)production of fear and for the ritual release from that fear, following which military activity could be resumed with the guarantee of the gods' backing and endorsement."
I like Padilla Peralta's approach and truth-telling, but it also makes me rather sad and concerned for the future. I think it was Thomas Love Peacock who wrote a poem about how poetry was invented to praise chieftans who slaughtered other tribes. Is there no other paradigm to be sought? The David Treuer novel I cannot scan quickly so I don't know what it entails, but one review says "[Treuer] seems to want to do for Native American culture and literature what James Joyce did for the Irish: haul it into the mainstream of Western culture through sheer nerve and verve." This seems like a possible case of non-epistemicidal culture change, and I do think that indigenous culture has a tremendous amount to teach the modern, specialized, out-of-kilter realm.
Perhaps my general question is, is there a kind of network evolution that can reduce domination and militarism while empowering sustainable, peaceful, inclusive alternatives?
In a somewhat simplistic example, I think of Dante's references to the stars. Many cultures refer to stars as well, so that could be a uniting element. To "re-behold the stars" in a sense means to renew our understanding of our place in the world and how we relate to each other. Also, there is the concrete experience of peaceful contemplation on the individual level, such as we have seen in Annie Abraham's "Distant Feelings" projects, that can also have a group or social aspect to it. I am often too utopian or optimistic, but I think the question is going to continue to be important: what kind of cultural networks help create sustainable, peaceful, just conditions and which foster fear, hate, destruction, etc.? My sense of Leonardo's value system is that he also saw two different paths for art, science, and engineering: one of greed, war, overproduction, waste, and misery, the other of sustainable balance, beauty, peace, respect, and inclusion. This awareness of both potentialities goes back to ancient times certainly and appears in indigenous culture too.
My wish to find something that warrants hope and optimism may of course be a distorting element, causing me to see evidence or patterns that are not real but only projected. It is certainly possible that the bridge in the Mona Lisa is not a metaphor of anything, nor is the garment; or if they are, it may not be a metaphor about art, science, and technology. It is also certainly possible that the painting is not an allegorical portrait of Leonardo's principle of Experience, which he called "the mother of all the sciences and arts," and Dante called "the spring that feeds the rivers of man's art."
It is possible that Leonardo had "little sustained interest in Dante" as the link below states, and that his drawing Woman Standing in a Landscape neither has a bridge in it nor relates to either Matelda or Botticelli's illustration of Purgatorio XXVIII. Also possible: Leonardo added the bridge to the Mona Lisa as one of its very last changes, but had no visual or thematic reason for doing so.
However, the opposite of the above possibilities are also possible, I think, and the following quotes may indicate a potentially significant influence of Dante on the Mona Lisa:
Leonardo: "If you [the poet] would say: but I describe for you the Inferno, or Paradise, or other delights or terrors, the painter can beat you at your own game, because he will put it directly in front of you."
Dante: "When finally you stand before the ray / of that Sweet Lady whose bright eye sees all, / from her you will learn the turnings of your way." (Inferno X.130-132)
All best,
Max
+++++
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Infrared_reflectograms_of_Mona_Lisa.jpg
+++++
https://www.rct.uk/collection/912581/a-woman-in-a-landscape
"Description
"A drawing of a woman standing in a landscape, with her body turned to the right, and her head turned to face the spectator. She wears full drapery, which blows out behind her in elaborate folds. Her right hand rests on her breast and with her left hand she points into the distance. Melzi's number 216.
"The most plausible explanation of this mysterious drawing is that it depicts Matelda, appearing to Dante in Purgatory (Cantos 28–29), the second book of his Divine Comedy: ‘I came upon a stream that blocked / the path of my advance; […] / I halted, and I set my eyes upon / the farther bank, to look at the abundant / variety of newly-flowered boughs; / And there […] / I saw a solitary woman moving, / singing, and gathering up flower on flower. / […] No sooner had she reached the point where that / fair river’s waves could barely bathe the grass, / than she gave me this gift: lifting her eyes. / […] / Erect, along the farther bank, she smiled, / her hands entwining varicoloured flowers.’
"The fluttering drapery here echoes that of Matelda in Botticelli’s illustration of the same scene (Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett), though the distinctive pose is derived from a figure in one of Mantegna’s canvases of the Triumph of Caesar, the Bearers of Trophies and Bullion (c.1484–92; Royal Collection, RCIN 403960), perhaps known to Leonardo via a print. The pointing gesture and direct gaze relate the drawing to Leonardo’s compositions of the Angel of the Annunciation (RCIN 912328) and St John the Baptist (Paris, Louvre), and would put us here in the position of Dante, as Matelda indicates her earthly paradise to us. But Leonardo had, it seems, little sustained interest in Dante, and most quotations from the Divine Comedy in his notebooks are on natural phenomena; though the background here is hard to read it seems rocky, and we know from the Leda that Leonardo would not miss an opportunity to illustrate a flowery setting (eg. RCIN 912424). The context and function of the drawing thus remain unknown."
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Botticelli,_Purgatorio_28.jpg
________________________________
From: NetBehaviour <netbehaviour-bounces at lists.netbehaviour.org> on behalf of Alan Sondheim via NetBehaviour <netbehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 2, 2021 10:41 AM
To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity <netbehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org>
Cc: Alan Sondheim <sondheim at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] Dante and Leonardo
Hi Max!
Just want to point out some of us have little truck with Milton (sounds like a toy!) but reference instead Byron's Don Juan for example, to the extent I have some of the cantos from the first edition. There is everything there without a bit of stodginess. I also had a year of Chaucer in grad school which again has enough grist for the mill but unfortunately have nothing from the first edition. Virgil always puts me to sleep, but I've gone back and reread all of Aristophanes recently including the fragments (which I recommend), more energy and groupoids like geological strata deus ex any machina you want. So there's continuity among Aristophanes, Rabelais, Chaucer, Byron which I love and you might also throw in Joyce and Marguerite Young as we ascend/descent into literature of a different sort, Making of Americans as well.
All these people are horizontal I think, plucking and picking out of anything to anywhere, nothing is necessarily sacred, everything's simultaneously running on full and empty, no schema. I think that re: Pontormo and Fiorentino for that matter, energy and insecurity among the Mannerists. Just where a lot of us are today.
Running off at the mouth/fingers/typing, had my 2nd shot Sunday and reeling a bit with headache and the suchlike. Is that a word?
Best!, Alan, interesting discussion
On Tue, Mar 2, 2021 at 11:22 AM Max Herman via NetBehaviour <netbehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org<mailto:netbehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org>> wrote:
Hi Paolo,
The term dantista is new to me but I like it a lot! Such a term makes sense though because of all the ancient and current subject matter that Dante discusses -- he kind of discusses everything in a way. To really appreciate the many details and nuances would reward a lifetime of study I'm sure.
My perspective (on both Dante and Leonardo) is influenced mostly by Calvino, especially Six Memos for the Next Millennium, which I first read only in 2018. Six Memos discusses the relationship between visual and verbal imagination, with specific reference to innumerable examples, and places significant emphasis on Dante (as well as Cavalcanti) with very powerful commentary on Leonardo's writing as well.
The relationship between Virgil and Dante is really interesting in the Commedia. Dante is lost in a dark forest at the start, which seems like a way of expressing that he doesn't know how to go forward as a poet. He then says that Virgil arrived to help guide him, and it's clear he saw Virgil as a great teacher and friend. Then because Virgil cannot enter Paradiso directly Beatrice is Dante's guide and teacher there. It's a marvelous combination of so many things all in the context of a journey.
In English we have Milton as epic but he is not as influential as Shakespeare. I have read Milton but the epic is not the most familiar form to me so it is interesting to read it in Dante. I have read a mix of things (some Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides, Ovid, Lucretius) from ancient times, and the Orlando Furioso long ago, but never Virgil or the Aeneid.
As to the tone of what Virgil says about Fortune in Inferno VII.67-96, with such evocative eloquence, my sense is that the sentiment of respect for the principle of change is shared by Dante (though it gets complicated because Dante is both the author and a character in the poem!) so it is very helpful to hear what you refer to about reverence for the ancients. I don't see any cases of disrespect for Virgil from Dante's character, only the opposite.
Regarding the word "esperienza," is it still in use today comparable to the English word "experience"? I was very interested to see it sometimes translated as "experiment," for example as in science, as that is not a meaning generally attached in English.
I am also rather curious to know how Dante's influence on Leonardo is approached in general. It seems to me there could have been a significant influence but I don't have the academic background to confirm this, and I read both only in translation (with minimal exceptions).
Last question, is the phrase "re-behold the stars" from Dante? I have not come across that yet but it's a very intriguing phrase.
All best and many thanks for the very helpful feedback,
Max
________________________________
From: Paolo Ruffino <p.ruffino at gmail.com<mailto:p.ruffino at gmail.com>>
Sent: Tuesday, March 2, 2021 8:55 AM
To: Max Herman <maxnmherman at hotmail.com<mailto:maxnmherman at hotmail.com>>
Cc: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity <netbehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org<mailto:netbehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org>>
Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] Dante and Leonardo
Hi Max,
regarding your point on Virgil's perspective as being that of Roman times or Dante's, this is something that a dantista would be able to explain better than I do, but my guess is that Virgil's words are used to legitimise Dante's contemporary knowledge. In Dante's times ancient wisdom, particularly that of Aristotle and the 'classics', was necessarily true. Indeed, the Middle Ages had many different ways of introducing new forms of knowledge and were certainly not stuck just with reading the classics. But any new knowledge was always framed as a re-wording of the ancient 'wise men' - those that Dante would see chatting in the limbo, right before the entrance to Inferno, Canto III. Virgil is certainly presenting Dante's knowledge at the time, but in Dante's times any form of knowledge is reliable only to the extent that it is confirmed by ancient philosophers and poets such as Virgil. If that makes sense.
Best,
On Mon, 1 Mar 2021 at 20:52, Max Herman <maxnmherman at hotmail.com<mailto:maxnmherman at hotmail.com>> wrote:
Hi Paolo,
Your points are excellent -- I was quoting there the Ciardi translation, which has some advantages over say the Longfellow translation, but absolutely he made lots of judgement calls and unhelpful interpretation. I have tried to view the Italian original (shown side-by-side in a user-friendly format at https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/dante/divine-comedy/) especially for key references to the word "esperienza" or garment, but absolutely my not knowing the original is a huge deficiency.
I find the section to be very interesting though in part because of the oddness you describe. Of course it is Virgil speaking, an ancient Roman, so it isn't clear if he is speaking only for ancient Roman myth or somehow reflects what Dante believed. Medieval thought did have a major role for Fortune, which kind of goes against the idea of being rewarded for virtue and punished for vice. Then again, the transience of all worldly things is part of most traditions so it is easy to see why Fortune can be incorporated into the Comedia. Yet to portray Fortune as a good and just entity, beatific even, is different from say the Carmina Burana.
By checking other translations and discussing with friends I did understand that "worldly goods" was perhaps the best translation, sadly accepting that there is no clear mention of garments (and so far I haven't found any metaphoric use of garments or bridges in Dante). Leonardo did write about Fortune in several cases, so it prompted me to wonder if his understanding of the idea may have had any relationship to Dante's. Work in progress. 🙂
All best,
Max
________________________________
From: Paolo Ruffino <p.ruffino at gmail.com<mailto:p.ruffino at gmail.com>>
Sent: Monday, March 1, 2021 1:10 PM
To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity <netbehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org<mailto:netbehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org>>
Cc: Max Herman <maxnmherman at hotmail.com<mailto:maxnmherman at hotmail.com>>
Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] Dante and Leonardo
The original text is quite different. I'm afraid a certain degree of
freedom has been taken when translating the poem in English, perhaps
inevitably. Fortuna administers human's luck, following God's
inscrutable plan, moving wealth across people and places, and it's
impossible for human beings to know the rationale behind the
distribution, how and when it might change. Fortuna's plan is hidden
like a snake in the grass.
I think the 'gears' is translating 'permutasse a tempo li ben vani',
meaning Fortuna is governing and distributing the mundane goods of
Earth on behalf of God. No references to 'garments' in the text,
though. The image evoked is that of the wheel of luck, something that
moves around but remains inscrutable. It's interesting how human
agency is irrelevant in Dante's vision.
Colui lo cui saver tutto trascende,
fece li cieli e diè lor chi conduce
sì, ch’ogne parte ad ogne parte splende,
distribuendo igualmente la luce.
Similemente a li splendor mondani
ordinò general ministra e duce
che permutasse a tempo li ben vani
di gente in gente e d’uno in altro sangue,
oltre la difension d’i senni umani;
per ch’una gente impera e l’altra langue,
seguendo lo giudicio di costei,
che è occulto come in erba l’angue.
On Mon, 1 Mar 2021 at 17:18, Max Herman via NetBehaviour
<netbehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org<mailto:netbehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org>> wrote:
>
>
> Hi Graziano,
>
> This is marvelous information and greatly appreciated! I would love to be able to travel to Florence or Ravenna to see the events you speak of but may have to participate virtually.
>
> I agree the original name being "Comedia" is a wonderful bit of background, and Dante's exile from Florence (along with the Gherardini family, to which some say the model for the Mona Lisa belonged). I'm reading Dante and all about him as fast as I can these days, and finished La Vita Nuova yesterday. To me he seems clearly the Italian Shakespeare, or really, since Dante was three centuries earlier perhaps it is more appropriate to call Shakespeare the English Dante.
>
> However, several close friends and colleagues have told me that focusing on Leonardo and Dante is a recipe for irrelevance and audience boredom, even suggesting that to discuss Dante verges on divisive denominationalism and that Leonardo is too elite and remote. I am prone to dissent, but that aside I think Dante and Leonardo were both trying to open up society and bring more equality, freedom, etc., i.e. many of the aspects of modern culture we now take for granted (and sadly see under attack so often of late). Rather than dismissing both as too obscure or from a separate era I think re-engaging with them might yield surprising results.
>
> I hope to learn much more about Dante as the year proceeds and will certainly view the link you sent. The concept "re-behold the stars" is a very interesting one, especially since Dante ends each book of the Comedia with the word "stars." I especially like his ending image, of his awareness and self "revolving" in time with the stars. (This reflects to me the kind of metaphor that the neuroscience of meditation and many indigenous cultures propose.) The blending of traditions, such as placing the river Lethe from ancient Roman mythology between Purgatorio and Paradiso, is another instance of cultural openness and comparison which I think is very significant in the Comedia. Dante's use of the vernacular is of course of huge importance, and occurred some 202 years before Luther published his vernacular translation of the Bible.
>
> I wonder if to "re-behold the stars" could be a time of great cultural progress, hope, and renewal?
>
> In 2019 I was able to travel to Europe and saw a few Leonardo exhibits. However, I missed the one at the Louvre (because the museum was closed due to strike on the day we set aside to visit) and had limited time. That trip prompted my interest in Leonardo and has motivated me to study more, and because I have been interested in Calvino since early 2018 and studied literature in school my interest in Leonardo has a strong literary perspective. (I think this makes sense, in a way, given the sheer volume of his writings on almost every topic imaginable.) I had also seen an exhibit at the Museo Galileo about Leonardo's library.
>
> Therefore it has surprised me to see that the influence of Dante on Leonardo is said to be minor (see citation below). I'm very interested to investigate whether the opposite might be true, and if in fact the works of Dante were fundamental to Leonardo's thought and are referenced in much of his work. This is new research for me, and speculative in some instances, but I do see highly plausible connections.
>
> And both were very interested in astronomy too!
>
> For example I find the following passage, where Dante compares the physics of light to the transience of human luck, very intriguing (from Virgil's description of Fortuna to Dante, Inferno VII.67-96):
>
>
> That king whose perfect wisdom transcends all,
>
> made the heavens and posted angels on them
>
> to guide the eternal light that it might fall
>
>
> from every sphere to every sphere the same.
>
> He made earth's splendors by a like decree
>
> and posted as their minister this high Dame,
>
>
> the Lady of Permutations. All earth's gear
>
> she changes from nation to nation, from house to house,
>
> in changeless change through every turning year.
>
>
> I am interested in whether "gear" can be translated as "garment" as well as "goods," since clothing is often a core attribute of Fortuna (i.e. rags to riches). This would align with the metaphoric significance I believe may attach to the bridge and garment in the Mona Lisa. In any event, I do see a lot of imaginative similarity between the Mona Lisa and "the Lady of Permutations" as well as Beatrice.
>
> Last year I wrote up many of these ideas in a blog for the Leonardo journal, and starting in January I have begun adding a discussion of Dante (as well as Machiavelli). I would be very interested to hear any thoughts or feedback on the ideas therein!
>
> All very best regards,
>
> Max
> "The Mindful Mona Lisa"
> May 14 - October 29, 2020
> Leonardo.info/blog
> https://www.leonardo.info/blog/2020/05/14/the-mindful-mona-lisa-a-bridge-garment-experience-hypothesis
>
> +++++
>
> https://www.rct.uk/collection/912581/a-woman-in-a-landscape
>
> Description
>
> A drawing of a woman standing in a landscape, with her body turned to the right, and her head turned to face the spectator. She wears full drapery, which blows out behind her in elaborate folds. Her right hand rests on her breast and with her left hand she points into the distance. Melzi's number 216.
>
> The most plausible explanation of this mysterious drawing is that it depicts Matelda, appearing to Dante in Purgatory (Cantos 28–29), the second book of his Divine Comedy: ‘I came upon a stream that blocked / the path of my advance; […] / I halted, and I set my eyes upon / the farther bank, to look at the abundant / variety of newly-flowered boughs; / And there […] / I saw a solitary woman moving, / singing, and gathering up flower on flower. / […] No sooner had she reached the point where that / fair river’s waves could barely bathe the grass, / than she gave me this gift: lifting her eyes. / […] / Erect, along the farther bank, she smiled, / her hands entwining varicoloured flowers.’
>
> The fluttering drapery here echoes that of Matelda in Botticelli’s illustration of the same scene (Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett), though the distinctive pose is derived from a figure in one of Mantegna’s canvases of the Triumph of Caesar, the Bearers of Trophies and Bullion (c.1484–92; Royal Collection, RCIN 403960), perhaps known to Leonardo via a print. The pointing gesture and direct gaze relate the drawing to Leonardo’s compositions of the Angel of the Annunciation (RCIN 912328) and St John the Baptist (Paris, Louvre), and would put us here in the position of Dante, as Matelda indicates her earthly paradise to us. But Leonardo had, it seems, little sustained interest in Dante, and most quotations from the Divine Comedy in his notebooks are on natural phenomena; though the background here is hard to read it seems rocky, and we know from the Leda that Leonardo would not miss an opportunity to illustrate a flowery setting (eg. RCIN 912424). The context and function of the drawing thus remain unknown.
>
> Text adapted from Leonardo da Vinci: A life in drawing, London, 2018
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: NetBehaviour <netbehaviour-bounces at lists.netbehaviour.org<mailto:netbehaviour-bounces at lists.netbehaviour.org>> on behalf of Graziano Milano via NetBehaviour <netbehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org<mailto:netbehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org>>
> Sent: Monday, March 1, 2021 9:55 AM
> To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity <netbehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org<mailto:netbehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org>>
> Cc: Graziano Milano <grazmaster at googlemail.com<mailto:grazmaster at googlemail.com>>
> Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] Dante and Leonardo
>
> Hi Max,
>
> The Divine Comedy was originally simply titled Comedìa and the first printed edition was published in 1472. The word Comedìa was later adjusted to the modern Italian Commedia. The adjective Divina was added by Giovanni Boccaccio, an Italian writer and poet (1313-1375), due to its subject matter and lofty style, and the first edition to name the poem Divina Comedìa in the title was that of the Venetian humanist Lodovico Dolce (1508/10-1568), a man of letters and theorist of painting, published in 1555 by Gabriele Gioliti de’ Ferrari (1508-1578), a 16th-century Italian printer active in Venice.
>
> Dante was born in Florence most probably around May-June 1265, although his date of birth is not exactly known. Dante was exiled in 1293 because he sided with the White Guelphs who were trying to defend the independence of the city of Florence by opposing the hegemonic tendencies of Pope Bonifacio VIII. He died in Ravenna, the night between 13th and 14th September 1321, where he had been invited to stay in that city in 1318 by its prince, Guido II da Polenta.
>
> He began writing The Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso), a long Italian narrative poem, in 1304 and completed it in 1320, a year before his death. The amazing artistic mosaics in the historic Ravenna’s churches inspired his writing of the Paradiso: https://www.ravennamosaici.it/en/
>
> Dante Alighieri is the father of the Italian language. Because of that, in Italy, children start reading and studying The Divine Comedy at their primary schools. At the age of 9 I did that and I was really impressed by the artistic mosaics, drawings, paintings and print artworks linked to it.
>
> The Divine Comedy has been a source of inspiration for countless artists for almost seven centuries. There are many references to Dante's work in literature. In music, Franz Liszt was one of many composers to write work based on the Divine Comedy. In sculpture, the work of Auguste Rodin includes themes from Dante, and many visual artists (Gustave Dore’, Philipp Veit, Sandro Botticelli, Antonio Manetti, Federico Zuccari, etc…) illustrated Dante's work.
>
> Rarely seen drawings, paintings and sculptures of Dante’s The Divine Comedy have been recently put on virtual display at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence as Italy has begun a year-long calendar of events to mark the 700th anniversary of the poet’s death:
> https://www.uffizi.it/en/online-exhibitions-series/to-rebehold-the-stars
>
> All the best,
> Graziano
>
>
> On Sat, 27 Feb 2021 at 19:26, Max Herman via NetBehaviour <netbehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org<mailto:netbehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org>> wrote:
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> Yesterday I found out that Dante (1265-1321) passed away five centuries to the year before Keats, making 2021 the 700th anniversary.
>
> Even though I did graduate study in English I never read Dante until this year. I knew fragments of course, the general outline, some commentary, and even had a paperback translation of Inferno. However it was only after reading Calvino's Six Memos for the Next Millennium -- a book that discusses the writing of both Dante and Leonardo -- in January 2018 that I got motivated to study Italian literature and painting more in depth.
>
> Leonardo is not generally thought to have been much influenced by Dante, although he is known to have been an expert on Dante's work. As research for a book on the Mona Lisa I studied a very interesting drawing dated 1517-18, one of Leonardo's last major works before his passing in 1519, known as Woman Standing in a Landscape:
>
> https://www.rct.uk/collection/912581/a-woman-in-a-landscape
>
> This wonderful image seems somehow allegorical and is often compared to Botticelli's 1485 illustration of Matilda, Dante, and the river Lethe in Purgatorio XXVIII:
>
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Sandro_Botticelli%27s_illustrations_to_the_Divine_Comedy#/media/File:Botticelli,_Purgatorio_28.jpg
>
> Leonardo did not title his drawing or explain anywhere in text what its subject might be. Therefore as the Royal Collection Trust page above states, "The context and function of the drawing thus remain unknown."
>
> Comparing the two drawings makes clear one major difference: Leonardo's image includes a bridge, but Botticelli's does not. Furthermore, in Leonardo's image the woman is pointing downstream, toward the bridge, whereas Botticelli's Matilda is pointing upward.
>
> Infrared scans of the Mona Lisa show that the bridge was added very late, as possibly the last element of the work:
>
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Infrared_reflectograms_of_Mona_Lisa.jpg
>
> Why would Leonardo have added a bridge at such a late stage of the composition? Nothing whatsoever is mentioned in his notebooks, and no Leonardo scholar has ever addressed this question. The bridge is assumed almost universally by Leonardo scholars to have no meaning or function in the painting, either visually or thematically. This may be an oversight of significant proportions.
>
> Therefore I'm writing another book about possible influences of Dante on Leonardo's writing, visual art, and overall thought. If anyone on the list has good references to recommend they would be most welcome! I know that the Commedia can seem terribly antique, dogmatic, patriarchal, and plain stodgy at times. However I try to remember that in its day Dante's project was fairly radical. It sought to integrate newly discovered art and literature from antiquity into medieval life, presaging the Renaissance; it was written in the vernacular Italian to expand access to a wider audience (over 200 years before Luther's 1534 translation of the Bible); Dante wrote it from political exile, commenting at significant personal risk on the politics of his day; and the work addresses many spheres of knowledge such as philosophy, astronomy, natural sciences, ethics, and history that at the time were strictly censored but are today considered modern and taken for granted.
>
> There is a good digital version with multiple translations and commentary online at https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/
>
> In general terms, I'm investigating whether the bridge in the Mona Lisa may symbolize a kind of evolution by Leonardo of some of Dante's ideas mixed with other influences and some of Leonardo's own unique perspectives on art and science. In particular, the sitter may be a combination of Dante's Beatrice and Fortune into the principle which Leonardo personified as "Esperienza," meaning both experimental method in science and expressive action in art. In such an interpretation the bridge and garment function as a structural metaphor about the flow of the history of art, science, and engineering (or what we might call technology) into their current form which is "worn" by humanity in the present day. One can even interpret the left background as Inferno (with Styx or Acheron), the right background as Purgatorio (with Lethe), and the sitter as Paradiso (with Esperienza/Beatrice/Fortune "inhabiting" the higher realm).
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gherardini_family#/media/File:La_Gioconda.jpg
>
> Michelino's famous 1465 painting of Dante in Florence Cathedral could be a possible influence:
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domenico_di_Michelino#/media/File:Dante_Domenico_di_Michelino_Duomo_Florence.jpg
>
> Below are a few quotations from Leonardo and Dante which are of course not conclusive in any way but do seem to evoke parallels which further research might help corroborate.
>
> All best regards,
>
> Max
>
> +++++
>
>
>
> Leonardo: “Sound rules are the issue of sound experience — the common mother of all the sciences and arts."
>
>
>
> Dante: "From this instance [of confusion] if you will do your part / you may escape by experiment, that being / the spring that feeds the rivers of man's art." (Paradiso II.94-96)
>
>
>
> The Italian "esperienza" is translated as "experiment":
>
>
>
> 94 Da questa instanza può deliberarti
>
> 95 esperïenza, se già mai la provi,
>
> 96 ch’esser suol fonte ai rivi di vostr’ arti.
>
>
>
> +++
>
>
>
> Leonardo: “Men wrongly complain of Experience; with great abuse they accuse her of leading them astray…. Men are unjust in complaining of innocent Experience, constantly accusing her of error and of false evidence.”
>
>
>
> Dante: "And this is she so railed at and reviled / that even her debtors in the joys of time / blaspheme her name. Their oaths are bitter and wild, / but she in her beatitude does not hear. / … she breathes her blessedness and wheels her sphere." (Inferno VII.91-96, on Fortune)
>
>
>
> +++
>
>
>
> Leonardo: "Painting is poetry which is seen and not heard, and poetry is a painting which is heard but not seen. These two arts, you may call them both either poetry or painting, have here interchanged the senses by which they penetrate to the intellect."
>
>
>
> Dante: "I yearned to know just how our image merges / into that circle, and how it there finds place; / but mine were not the wings for such a flight." (Paradiso XXXIII.137-138)
>
>
>
> +++
>
>
>
> Leonardo: "If you [the poet] would say: but I describe for you the Inferno, or Paradise, or other delights or terrors, the painter can beat you at your own game, because he will put it directly in front of you."
>
>
>
> Dante: "When finally you stand before the ray / of that Sweet Lady whose bright eye sees all, / from her you will learn the turnings of your way." (Inferno X.130-132)
>
>
>
> +++
>
>
>
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Paolo Ruffino
http://paoloruffino.com
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