Archive of the Limited Edition of Dante's Inferno: Canto XVII/4 / Phillips, Tom., 1983
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Scope and Contents
XVII/4 Dante's powers of physical visualisation (in which he parallels his friend Giotto in his new bodying forth of the world's reality) are unprecedented in literature and one of his greatest achievements is the predictive description of flight which ends this Canto, complete with a conversation between Virgil and Dante that could be that between pilot and novice on a training plane. Flight and 'a flight of stairs' are joined as in a pun to recall Virgil's comment, `It's stairs like these we'll have to travel by. . .' This particular staircase is taken from a diagram in J. V. de Vries' La Perspective' of 1639 (via the TLS via the HRC, Austin, Texas), and also recalls the windingly vertiginous descent that Dante experiences on the back of Geryon. The flight of the little green plane (a rubber stamp from an educational set bought in Sao Paolo) follows the curve of the banister. The stem of the staircase has become the falling river of blood. Perhaps Dante's description here would qualify as an early example of Science Fiction, which would make the technical nature of the illustration that much more relevant. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.
Dates
- Creation: 1983
Creator
- Phillips, Tom, 1937-2022 (Person)
Extent
0 See container summary (6 prints (silkscreen, lithograph) in clamshell box (museum board, paper covered, lithograph)) ; prints 42 x 32 cm, in box 44 x 35 x 8 cm
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Physical Location
1904 shelf Phillips Dante Inferno Archive box 7
Custodial History
The Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, on loan from Ruth and Marvin A. Sackner and the Sackner Family Partnership.
General
Published: London, England : Talfourd Press. Signed by: TP (l.r. stage 6). Nationality of creator: British. General: Added by: BARB; updated by: MARVIN.
Genre / Form
Repository Details
Part of the The Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry Repository
125 W. Washington St.
Main Library
Iowa City Iowa 52242 United States
319-335-5921