Painting through the Comedy. Canto II.

Readers know of my love for the greatest of Catholic, indeed all, poets. Artist Eric Armusik is working his way through the Commedia one canto at a time. First he completed Canto 1

Nel mezzo di cammin di nostro vita...

And has now finished Canto 2

I am Beatrice who send thee

The importance of spreading a love for Dante through art is high. You can follow Armusik's progress (he posts pictures of the paintings throughout the process of bringing these scenes to life) at his blog.

Note the radiance of light from Beatrice into the dark of Limbo (where she engages Virgil's services). Virgil, the great poet of Rome, has his head bowed low before Beatrice, the Florentine girl who died, barely noticed, at 25, daring not to meet her gaze. The profundity of the image lies here - the great pagan, now damned, is abashed by the saint, regardless of her historical insignificance. 

I've blogged my way though much of the Inferno (I stopped as I became engaged to teach a course on the entire Comedy, which has occupied much of my time). You can check those posts out HERE and HERE. 

Those posts are very abbreviated. I cover these in much greater detail in the course, which I may make available online at some point. For now, enjoy these beautiful images and READ the COMEDY!

The pope wants you to.

Consider signing up for email notifications for new posts on this blog. No spam, ever, guaranteed. Currently, posts are going out about once a month (or at least I'm trying to hit that schedule). 

Posts frequently involve Catholic apologetics, occasional news commentary, Catholic book reviews, and - obviously enough - Dante. 

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(pictures posted with permission of Eric Armusik).