Danke, Dante (Grazie, Dante)

Dante Alighieri in the twelfth century was pretty much the original neoclassical guy. He was a big fan of the writer Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro) who lived 70 - 19BC. One example of homage to the classical writer was his treatment of the mythical three headed dog called Cerberus who guarded the underworld. Virgil in the Aeneid had the dog(s) distracted by honey cakes while Aeneas and Sibyl passed. Dante's version in the Divine Comedy portrayed Cerberus with a much less refined palate, because thrown mud did the trick. I think I'm going to find those PETA people again...


Here is a wonderful image of Cerberus as a pup. I cannot recommend highly enough GHenry's blog because of the rich frothy blend of humor, knowledge and insight.

Anyway, Dante was one of the first young whippersnappers of the known Western world to publish writings in something other than Latin. It was an archaic mix of Latin and dialects from Tuscany that he called 'Italian'. It's strange that his language choices were binding Italy together way before the 1870 unification.

The 'Divine Comedy' is of course Dante's 'Godfather II', that is to say, much better than some of the other earlier dreck and 'La Vita Nuova' where he was all writing poetry to Beatrice Portinari. I mean sure, she was hot and all, but do we really have to read all of that? Maybe it would be better if it was a film with interpretive dance, juggling, or 1970's orange Dodge Chargers with rebel flags painted on them jumping creeks as the poetry was read.

Here is the poet Dante's grave, in Ravenna, where my mosaic class will be later this year by the way (haha, no, not in the actual tomb, you weirdos). Dante is so highly revered in Italian culture that during WWII, they moved his grave to a protected mound for worry of bombing destruction.

I absolutely love and adore Ravenna, Venice and pretty much everything in between. Ravenna was the Capitol city of Rome towards the end of the empire, and there are several artifacts from the earliest Christian churches here.

Here are some random photos I took of mosaics in Ravenna. The class I'm taking will be with the workshop of Luciana Notturni, one of the best in the world to learn technique from. Not to say the stuff I do now is bad, but I'd like to learn some of the byzantine techniques and use some glass in portraits. Check out the gold / crystal glass used as tessarae in the ones below. I have some of that in case anyone needs a proper 'Pimp Cup', haha.

---

Sono felice di tornare in Italia questo autunno per la scuola di mosaico. Inoltre, avrò visitare Venezia e Como. Forse dico salve a Dante... Ciaooo!!!