Monday, January 30, 2017

25 Dante Links from Around the Internet

If you are interested in Dante and his masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, here are some must see websites:

Princeton Dante Project - read the entire Comedy in Italian and in Jean Hollander's excellent translation plus Dante's minor works.

Dartmouth Dante Project - "a searchable full-text database containing more than seventy on Dante's Divine Comedy."

Yale's Open Course on Dante - taught by Dante scholar Giuseppe Mazzotta

The Dante Society of America - of which I'm a proud member (but not so proud as to have to circle the first terrace of Purgatory for long!)

DivineComedy.org - read the Divine Comedy in the original Italian, 3 English translations, German, and Finnish.

The World of Dante -  "a multi-media research tool intended to facilitate the study of the Divine Comedy.

 Danteworlds - an interactive multimedia journey... through the three realms of the afterlife presented in Dante's Divine Comedy.

 The Dante Museum in Florence - a museum in a reconstructed house on the spot where Dante lived before his exile.

AngelFire.com - a fun website with a variety of Dante related information, including a quiz on what circle of hell you'd end up in if you died today.

Renaissance Dante in Print - Dedicated to showcasing beautiful illuminated editions of the Divine Comedy from the Renaissance.

GoodReads.com - Join a discussion of the Divine Comedy online.

A Brief Timeline of Dante's Life

How Dante Saved My Life - an article by Rod Dreher relating the impact the Divine Comedy had on his life.

Youtube.com - a Series of videos on the Divine Comedy featuring art from Gustav Dore.

Dante Alighieri Wikipedia Page - for a quick overview of the man, not for an authoritative account of his life or works.

Archive.org - A Listing of Works By or About Dante and his Works

LibriVox.org - Audio books on Dante and his Works

Posts from this Blog:

The "Blogging Through Hell" Series

An Inspirational Post, urging you to read Dante.

An article on the Three Advents of Christ in Dante's Divine Comedy.

Recommended Dante Reading List

Pope Francis' call to read the Divine Comedy.

Why Dante is a "Great Read for Lent."

Why Reading Dante is a great use of your time and effort.

A Limerick inspired from Dante's Hell written on a cold winter's day.
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Monday, January 23, 2017

10 Favorite Images of Jesus to Know and Share

As Catholics we know the power of images to help us draw closer to God.

And no, it isn't idolatry to use images as an aid to our worship (see my post Do Catholics Worship Statues?)

In that spirit I thought I'd share hear some of my favorite images of Christ, excluding those recognized instantly worldwide e.g. Michelangelo's Pieta and Last Judgement or Leonardo's Last Supper, and confining myself to Italian masters whose works are on public display.

I'm including:
  • names of the artists
  • original titles of the works 
  • where you can visit these masterpieces in persona
  • dates of the master's life
You'll note all these artists all worked between 1225 and 1680, a period stretching from the revival of the arts in the High Middle Ages to the end of the Baroque. Dante tells us fame is fleeting,
Oh vana gloria de l'umane posse! com' poco verde in sul la cima dura, se non è giunta da l'etati grosse! (Purgatorio, 11.91-93)
O vanity of human powers,
how briefly lasts the crowning green of glory,
unless an age of darkness follows! 
We remember these men. Whether or not we can conclude this period was therefore "an age of darkness" (the neoclassicism of the Enlightenment to modern abstract "art"), I'll leave to my readers to decide.

My personal top ten:

10. Cristo morto sorretto dagli angeli; Paolo Veronese, 1528-1588 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA)

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9. Cristo coronato di spine; Annibale Carracci, 1560-1609 (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden)
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8. Testa di Cristo; Correggio, 1489-1534 (Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA)

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7. Salvator Mundi; Gianlorenzo Bernini, 1598-1680 (San Sebastiano fuori le mura; Rome, Italy)

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6. Cristo morto; Andrea Mantegna, 1430-1506 (Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, Italy)

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5. Il Crocifisso; Maestro della Croce 434, mid-13th century (Uffizi, Florence, Italy)

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5. Il Bacio di Guida (detail); Giotto di Bondone, 1266-1337 (Cappella degli Scrovegni, Padua, Italy)

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4.  Incredulità di San Tommaso; Caravaggio, 1592-1610 (Sanssouci Picture Gallery; Potsdam, Germany)
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3. Il Crocifisso; Donatello, 1386-1466 (Santa Croce, Florence, Italy)

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2. Testa di Cristo, Drawings, Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519 (from his notebooks)

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1. Giudizio Universale; Coppo di Marcovaldo, 1225-1276 (Battistero di San Giovanni, Florence, Italy)

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Which of these do you like best?

What are some of your favorite depictions of Our Lord?

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You might also enjoy these posts:


Love Catholic Art? You'll want to consider this book:



 Wondering why our churches are not full of masterpieces (and why the buildings look less like houses of God and more like factories or assembly halls)? You'll want to read this book:
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Monday, January 2, 2017

What I've Read in 2016.

picture source
I thought I might share with you what I've managed to read (or re-read as the case may be) this year. If any of the titles interest you, I've provided a link to Amazon where you can purchase the book. If you've read any great books this year, make sure to let us know in the comments so our readers (and myself!) can check those out too.

If you have any questions about any of these books drop me a line in the combox and I'll try to answer all of them.

I'll be taking a break from blogging in January. See you all in February.

11. Dante: A Penguin Life - RWB Lewis
21. Inferno - Dante Alighieri (Hollander)
49 Benedict XVI, Last Testament - With Peter Seewald
55 Take Five. Mediations with Pope Benedict XVI.

Are you looking to read more in 2017? If so, here's some inspiration from the man who created Rome as we know it, Gianlorenzo Bernini:




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