After the successful editions of the latest years and on the occasion of the 7th centenary of Dante’s death, the exhibition “LA BELLEZZA CH’IO VIDI… (lit. “The loveliness I saw”, Paradise XXX, 19). The Divine Comedy and the mosaics of Ravenna“, promoted by Archbishopric of Ravenna-Cervia in collaboration with “Dante in rete” and the supervision of a scientific committee chaired by Laura Pasquini and Giuseppe Ledda.
The links between the mosaics of Ravenna and Dante Alighieri’s work are many and very well documented. Many scholars argue that the Paradise of the Divine Comedy was written in its entirety in Ravenna, in a time when most of the churches were decorated with mosaics.
The exhibition, hosted inside the exhibition halls of the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, aims to document the influence of the mosaics of Ravenna on Dante’s work and the source of inspiration they were for the extraordinary visions of the “Divine Comedy”.
More than 20 light panels explain the many links between the mosaics and the verses of the Divine Comedy through explanatory texts taken from Iconografie Dantesche by Laura Pasquini (Longo editore) and suggestive comments of Il Vangelo secondo Ravenna by Andrè Frossard (Itaca edizione).
Justinian in the VI canto of the Paradise, the parade in the XXIX canto of the Purgatory recalling the one with the martyrs of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, the stars at the end of the three canticas of the Divine Comedy recalling the ones set in the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia.
The exhibition is also enriched with four panels inspired by “Candor Lucis Aeternae“, the Apostolic letter published on March 25th, 2021, written by Pope Francis for the delegation of the Archbishopric and the Municipality and consigned in private audience.
The exhibition is the result of a scientific curation by a commission of experts and scholars including Laura Pasquini, Professor at the University of Bologna, Giuseppe Ledda, Professor at the University of Bologna and member of the National committee for Dante’s celebrations in 2021.
