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Archive of the Limited Edition of Dante's Inferno: Canto XVII/3 / Phillips, Tom., 1983

 Item
Identifier: CC-54883-990310

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Scope and Contents

XVII/3 On a recent visit to Italy in 1982, I went to Padua in order to visit the Scrovegni chapel which was originally erected by Enrico Scrovegni the son of that Rinaldo Scrovegni who sits among the usurers of this Canto. It was he also that commissioned Giotto to paint magnificent frescoes. Dante and Giotto were close friends and the writer visited Padua while the painter was at work on the chapel. They must have talked there often, and, if they were typical artists, the conversation must have turned to discussion of money and no doubt threw up the irony that this glory that Giotto was in the process of glorifying was built on the foundations of usury which in turn funded Giotto's own work there. Ezra Pound in his own Cantos devotes a complete section (in homage to this section of the Inferno) on usury asserting that Not by Usura came. . (and here he cites treasures of art and craft). In refuting this assertion of Pound I take the liberty of stylistic parody to suggest that we can still see one of the wonders of art that was made in covert atonement for the dubious business practices that financed it. Thus it was usury that paid for Giotto to paint the vault of heaven from which I quote the artist's characteristic star forms, which themselves by implication pre-echo the stars that end each section of Dante's eschatological vision (cf. the last image in the present book). The watercolour that served as the basis of this picture was worked up from pen sketches done on the spot with some colour references to a postcard purchased in the chapel itself. Both building and stars also reflect Dante's association with the number nine. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Dates

  • Creation: 1983

Creator

Extent

0 See container summary (10 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. Nationality of creator: British. General: Added by: BARB; updated by: MARVIN.

Repository Details

Part of the The Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry Repository

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