Visions of Dante Symposium

About This Event

"Visions of Dante" is timed to mark the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri (1265–1321). This exhibition of works in various media presents the Divine Comedy as an inexhaustible source for artists and other visual thinkers. Manuscripts and incunabula as well as later illustrated editions and portfolios by Giani, Flaxman, Blake, Doré, Dalí, and many others are accompanied by works on paper, paintings, photographs, sculpture, and film by artists who treat Dante’s themes as catalysts for their own explorations of contemporary culture, mores, and self. This daylong symposium will present speakers considering the ongoing impact of Dante as a visual poet—from the Italian Renaissance reception of Dante via early printed editions of the Divine Comedy, to the dialogue of Black literature with Dante’s images and ideas, to a mapping of Dante’s vision onto the American postindustrial cityscape. It will also feature a tour and discussion of the exhibition with the curators. Participate in person or virtually. Learn more at the Johnson Museum event page.

Featured Guests

Dr. Laurent Ferri, Curator of Pre-1800 Collections, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library and Adjunct Professor of Comparative Literature Dr. Andrew C. Weislogel, Seymour R. Askin, Jr. '47 Curator, Earlier European and American Art, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University Dr. Rhoda Eitel-Porter, Editor, Print Quarterly, London, UK Natale Vacalebre, Benjamin Franklin Fellow, Italian Studies, University of Pennsylvania Sandow Birk, artist, Long Beach, CA Dr. Maryemma Graham, University Distinguished Professor, Department of English, University of Kansas Dr. Alessandra Baroni, Professor of Art History SAM - IPZS and Art History Instructor, Arezzo Lisio Program Italian Studies Abroad, University of Rochester Dr. Donatella Stocchi-Perucchio, Associate Professor of Italian in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Rochester

Co-sponsors

The exhibition is supported in part by grants from the Corridor and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.