From Botticelli to Rodin, Dante's Inferno is on display at Rome's Scuderie del Quirinale

The Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome is also celebrating the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri (Florence, 1265 - Ravenna, 1321), and is doing so with the major exhibition Inferno, scheduled from October 15, 2021 to January 9, 2022: it is an exhibition conceived by Jean Clair and curated by Jean Clair and Laura Bossi with the aim of investigating the infernal universe, its landscapes and inhabitants, recounting its iconographic fortune over the centuries, so as to offer a new interpretation to the Florentine poet’s visual imagery. A project that, by focusing on the first of the three canticles of the Divine Comedy, which has always been the most represented, aims to highlight the ultimate meaning of Dante’s great theological-allegorical fresco: to show humanity a path of liberation from the miseries and horrors of “the flowerbed that makes us so fierce” (Par. XXII, 151) toward a condition of happiness and salvation.

This is the first major exhibition dedicated specifically to the theme of Dante’s inferno: the exhibition also aims to recount the persistence of the iconography of the world of the damned from the Middle Ages to the present day through more than two hundred works of art, on loan from more than eighty major museums, public collections and prestigious private collections from Italy and the Vatican, as well as from France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Bulgaria. The backbone of the entire exhibition is Dante’s vision of the afterlife, aimed at questioning the historical evolution of the concept of Evil and its condemnation in the afterlife. The exhibition deals with distinct themes and subjects according to a transversal chronology: the origin of Hell as the realm of Lucifer, the Judgment that condemns the damned to dwell there eternally after death, the topography of the infernal cone, the multifaceted nature of the Devil and the temptations by which he seeks to lure us, up to the earthly transliteration of Hell into the ravages of war, the anguish of imprisonment, alienating and toxic labor, the darkness of madness, and the nightmare of extermination.

Beyond the culmination of Evil, the exhibition will find its conclusion with the evocation of the idea of salvation, entrusted by Dante to the last verse of the Canticle: “e quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle.” A whole section dedicated to the salvific impulse, proper not only to Christianity but to every Humanism, to raise our gaze upward (the universe, the infinite, the absolute, God). A gesture of poetic liberation and salvation from the claustrophobic nightmares of hell, pointing the way to the reconquest of a new humanity.

Several important works are part of the itinerary, starting with Sandro Botticelli’s Infernal Voragine, an admirable painting on parchment executed by the Florentine painter to illustrate the Divine Comedy, and the most famous masterpiece of this iconography. The sheet depicting Dante’s Inferno was exceptionally loaned by the Vatican Library for the first two weeks of the exhibition. Among the most spectacular works is a plaster version of Auguste Rodin ’s monumental and celebrated Gates of Hell (1:1 scale casting model), created in 1989 for the casting of one of the last bronze examples of the work. On loan from the Musée Rodin in Paris, the colossal artifact, 7 meters high and placed at the beginning of the exhibition itinerary, represents the pinnacle of all-time artistic reflections on Dante’s poem. Other masterpieces include Beato Angelico’s Last Judgment, Jan Brueghel’s The Temptations of St. Anthony the Abbot, Franz Von Stuck’s Lucifer, Anselm Kiefer’s Sternenfall, Valladolid’s polychrome wood Demon, Gustave Doré’s majestic four-meter canvas Virgil and Dante in the 9th circle of Hell, to the Neapolitan Theater “Inferno” with puppets from Catania and Palermo, from the Antonio Pasqualino International Puppet Museum in Palermo.

“Also on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death, the Scuderie del Quirinale is participating in the national celebrations with a major exhibition project,” says Mario De Simoni, president and CEO of Ales - Scuderie del Quirinale. "Inferno is a powerful exhibition, focused on what is perhaps the most famous, well-known and represented of the three canticles. The exhibition captures and represents, with the force of iconography, the total moral impulse of the Comedy, which through an apocalyptic vision tends toward a prodigious action of individual and collective redemption, of final salvation with the overcoming of the world that ill lives. Not surprisingly, the last room is entitled ’Riveder le stelle,’ presenting an impressive sequence of masterpieces of art and photographs from space probes, in a moving depiction of the starry sky. A great intellectual effort, under the guidance of a supreme historian of art and thought like Jean Clair. But also a great productive effort, for which precious thanks go to partners American Express and Unilever, who decided to organically and structurally support the Scuderie del Quirinale."

“The ethical prescription that Virgil imparts to Dante at the end of the journey, after his encounter with Lucifer and at the moment of taking the narrow way out of hell (’conviensi dipartir da tanto male’),” emphasizes Matteo Lafranconi, Director Scuderie del Quirinale, “reflects the founding assumption of the Comedy, made explicit by Alighieri himself in the famous Epistle to Cangrande della Scala: ’Removere viventes in hac vita de statu miserie et perducere ad statum felicitatis,’ that is, ’Tear the souls of the living from the condition of incompleteness and accompany them to the state of grace.’ A moral impulse and at the same time an ardent message of renewal, an invective and exhortation, an action of individual and social, moral and political redemption, this assumption finds its allegorical iconography in reviewing the stars and its synthesis in a single universal reason: to find again the form of human happiness.”

“To celebrate worthily with an art exhibition the seventh centenary of Dante Alighieri’s death,” say Jean Clair and Laura Bossi, “the theme of the Inferno stood out. Not only because compared to the other canticles, it is undoubtedly the extraordinary infernal iconography that has most inspired artists, with a lasting impact on European visual culture; but also because of its topicality, in a world in which the destruction of nature, social and cultural crisis cause us to reflect on the fate of humanity and ultimate things. Whether expressed in the grim warnings of eternal suffering in medieval miniatures, in the encounter with a satanic universe of earthly tragedies in Renaissance and Baroque art, in the torments of thesoul depicted in Romantic and Symbolist canvases, or in modern psychiatric interpretations of the mystery of Evil, belief in a possible finish line of damnation has proved remarkably persistent, exerting terror, pity, morbid fascination or ’scientific’ curiosity from time to time.”

Also on the occasion of the Inferno exhibition, the Scuderie del Quirinale is offering visitors a program of collateral meetings entitled Infernauti, a series of appointments aimed at delving into some of the peculiar aspects of the review that, over the centuries, have helped to define the scope of Dante’s work that is still so relevant and decisive for contemporary culture. Following the path traced by Jean Clair himself and thanks to the participation of scholars, specialists and leading figures in the world of culture, the meetings will focus on some key themes: from Dante’s and his contemporaries’ vision of the world of the underworld to the historical evolution of the concept of evil. With a series of comparisons between the divine and the diabolical, between sins and sinners, and with the transposition of hell to earth with wars, epidemics, madness and the pain of living, the protagonists of the meetings will accompany the audience to the well-known epilogue “E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle,” the last verse of the Canticle aimed at evoking Paradise, the chosen place of poetry and spiritual and aesthetic rebirth.

The protagonists of the meetings will be high-profile international intellectuals and scholars, starting with Byung-Chul Han, South Korean philosopher (to whom the opening of the review is entrusted) with a lectio magistralis entitled “The Society of Fatigue,” in collaboration with the German Academy Rome - Villa Massimo and Goethe-Institut Rom and scheduled for October 19 at 6 p.m. at the same Goethe Institut. And again, among others, SA Smythe, scholar of gender and African-American cultures, who, as part of the meeting “Hope for all who enter,” will address the issue of migration and the cultural and social impact it causes. The event, organized in collaboration with American Academy in Rome and Temple University Rome, will be held on Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. at Temple University itself. “The Scream of Evil” is the title of the meeting that, next Dec. 2, at 6:30 p.m., will feature Carla del Ponte and Andrea Purgatori, at the Palazzo della Consulta, with the participation of the Vice President of the Constitutional Court, Giuliano Amato. Also highly anticipated is the appointment with Gianfranco Ravasi who, at Palazzo Barberini on Dec. 14 at 6 p.m., will address the theme of the fascination that sin exerts on man more than virtue. The exhibition catalog is published by Electa. More information can be found on the Scuderie del Quirinale website.

Image: Sandro Botticelli, La Divina Commedia: la voragine infernale (1481-1488; Silver point and ink on parchment; Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, inv. Reginense Lat. 1896, pt. A, f. 101r) © Vatican Apostolic Library, Vatican City.

From Botticelli to Rodin, Dante's Inferno is on display at Rome's Scuderie del Quirinale

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