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Dante’s Inferno and its socio-political relevance, 700 years later
Dante Alighieri’s Comedy is one of the masterpieces of human civilization. He started working on it in 1308 and completed it in 1320, shortly before he died. This year being the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death, several commemorative events have taken place throughout the world and especially in Italy. A few days ago my wife and I visited an exhibit entitled “Inferno,” held at the beautiful space offered by the Scuderie del Quirinale museum in Rome. It was a spectacular experience, and one that made us reflect in rather unexpected ways, especially once we reached the last part of the show.
As one might imagine, most of “Inferno” is dedicated to the first third of Dante’s Comedy, by far the most interesting one in my mind. Purgatory is okay and Paradise is rather boring, because of course the most interesting characters and stories are those of transgression and rebellion. “Heaven for the climate, and Hell for the company,” as Mark Twain repeated, quoting one Ben Wade from the late 1800’s.
The first piece we saw upon entering the show was a spectacular sculpture of countless bodies of fallen angels tumbling on each other. Sculpted from a single piece of marble! Other stunning pieces soon followed. A replica of the gigantic doors of Hell by Rodin (now at the homonymous museum in Paris); paintings of both Dante and of famous scenes from the Inferno made by artists across the centuries, from Botticelli to Bosch; multiple disturbing representations of Satan. And so on.
We immersed ourselves in the details of the immense poetic canvas threaded by Dante, with its intricate references not just to the Christian religion, but — more fundamentally — to human nature and society. After all, Dante was a political exile from Florence at the time, and he found himself at liberty of placing some of his enemies in Hell, including a few Popes, such as Celestine V (for his alleged cowardice when he decided to abdicate) and of course Boniface VIII (whose actions indirectly led to Dante’s expulsion from Florence).
