The Function of Art

Pope Pius XII wrote on many subjects.

He even had an address on central heating.

On April 8, 1952, he gave an address to a group of Italian artists and their families at the Vatican. The address was entitled "The Function of Art".

Art had been an important weapon in the Fascist regimes. In Italy, Futurism was in the ascendant during the Fascist regime. In Germany, Hitler took a great deal of interest in art and architecture.

In Communist regimes, art was also important in reinforcing the message of the authorities. Stalin took a great deal of interest in all types of art. His approval or criticism was feared.

In contrast, Pius XII`s views focus on the validity of the individual artist`s vision and the importance of art for its own sake.


Pope Pius XII said:

"4. It is needless to explain to you-who feel it within yourselves, often as a noble torment-one of the essential characteristics of art, which consists in a certain intrinsic 'affinity' of art with religion, which in certain ways renders artists interpreters of the infinite perfections of God, and particularly of the beauty and harmony of God's creation.

5. The function of all art lies in fact in breaking through the narrow and tortuous enclosure of the finite, in which man is immerged while living here below, and in providing a window to the infinite for his hungry soul.

6. Thus it follows that any effort-and it would be a vain one, indeed-aimed at denying or suppressing any relation between art and religion must impair art itself. Whatever artistic beauty one may wish to grasp in the world, in nature and in man, in order to express it in sound, in color, or in plays for the masses, such beauty cannot prescind from God. Whatever exists is bound to Him by an essential relationship. Hence, there is not, neither in life nor in art- be it intended as an expression of the subject or as an interpretation of the object-the exclusively "human," the exclusively "natural" or "immanent."

7. The greater the clarity with which art mirrors the infinite, the divine, the greater will be its possibility for success in striving toward its ideal and true, artistic accomplishment. Thus, the more an artist lives religion, the better prepared he will be to speak the language of art, to understand its harmonies, to communicate its emotions.

8. Naturally, We are far from thinking that in order to be interpreters of God in the sense just mentioned, artists must treat explicitly religious subjects. On the other hand, one cannot question the fact that never, perhaps, has art reached its highest peaks as it has in these subjects.

9. In this manner, the great masters of Christian arts became interpreters, not only of the beauty but also of the goodness of God, the Revealer and Redeemer. Marvelous exchange of services between Christianity and art! From their Faith they drew sublime inspirations. They drew hearts to the Faith when for continuous centuries they communicated and spread the truths contained in the Holy Scriptures, truths inaccessible, at least directly, to the humble people.

10. In truth, artistic masterpieces were known as the "Bible of the people," to mention such noted examples as the windows of Chartres, the door of Ghiberti (by happy expression known as the Door of Paradise), the Roman and Ravenna mosaics and the facade of the Cathedral of Orvieto. These and other masterpieces not only translate into easy reading and universal language the Christian truths, they also communicate the intimate sense and emotion of these truths with an effectiveness, lyricism and ardour that, perhaps, is not contained in even the most fervent preaching.

11. Souls ennobled, elevated and prepared by art, are thus better disposed to receive the religious truths and the grace of Jesus Christ. This is one of the reasons why the Sovereign Pontiffs, and the Church in general, honored and continue to honor art and to offer its works as a tribute of human beings to God's Majesty in His churches, which have always been abodes of art and religion at the same time.

12. Beloved children, crown your artistic ideals with those of religion, which revitalize and integrate them. The artist is of himself a privileged person among men, but the Christian artist is, in a certain sense, a chosen one, because it is proper to those chosen to contemplate, to enjoy and to express God's perfections.

13. Seek God here below in nature and in man, but above all within yourselves. Do not vainly try to give the human without the divine, nor nature without its Creator. Harmonize instead the finite with the infinite, the temporal with the eternal, man with God, and thus you will give the truth of art and the true art.

14. Even without making it a specific aim, endeavor to educate men's hearts-so easily inclined toward materialism -toward kindness and a spiritual feeling; you to whom it is given to speak a language which all peoples can understand. Strive to bring men closer to one another. May the artist's vocation, for which you are indebted to God, lead you to this mission: a mission so noble and worthy that it is sufficient in itself to give to your daily life-often harsh and arduous-its fullness and a courageous faith. "

The full text of the address is at papalencyclicals.net.

The choice of Manzu for the new Door of Death (see post below) illustrates these principles.

St Peter`s Basilica: The Door of Death

"My good son Giacomo, you must promise me to finish the doors of St. Peter's as soon as possible."

Each time Pope John XXIII posed for a bust during the summer of 1961, he urged Italian Sculptor Giacomo Manzù (born December 22, 1908, Bergamo; died January 17, 1991, Ardea) to get on with a Vatican commission for new bronze doors for the left-hand side of St. Peter's façade.

Renaissance Sculptor Antonio Filarete completed the massive central doors of St. Peter's Basilica in the fifteenth century. His bronze doors were flanked, somewhat incongruously, by plain oak ones—and were for more than five hundred years.

In 1947, Pope Pius XII had set up an international competition for the design of new doors to replace the old oak doors. In 1950, Manzù was commissioned to provide the doors for the "Door of Death": the door at the far left of the facade and was only used for funerals. The commissions for the central doors were awarded to conservative and safe choices: Biagini and Crocetti.

It was clear that the choice of Manzù was not at all one which met with universal approval with the Vatican authorities. In 1947, the Holy Office had criticised Manzù for depicting a Christ crucified- without any clothes. He also had close contacts with the Italian Communist party. His design was modern rather than classical.

As regards his wining design, all the figures were this time fully clothed. The large left-hand panel of his door showed such great teacher-saints as John the Baptist, Augustine, Benedict, Ignatius and John Bosco. The right-hand panel included such confessor-and martyr-saints as Francis of Assisi, Dominic and Joan of Arc. As it turned out, the finished doors were completely different from the initial design.

But once he had won, Manzù admitted, the commission bored him. He cast, and then rejected, a scale model of the doors in 1954, and eventually discarded more than 300 sketches for the project.

In 1962, Manzù managed to complete a design to his satisfaction.

In 1963, after viewing a plaster cast of the doors, Vatican representatives objected to four of the panels as too profane: Cain and Abel, death by hanging, death of a mother, death in space. Manzù staged a studio sit-in, and finally got his own way by threatening not to finish the doors at all.

In June 1964 workmen hoisted the ten-ton bronze portals into place.

Two large panels picture the crucifixion of Christ and the death of the Virgin Mary, her body supported by two angels before its assumption into heaven. Below there are scenes of death from the sacred history of the church—Abel clubbed by his brother Cain, St. Joseph waiting calmly for the ebbing of life, the first Christian martyr St. Stephen being stoned by a Jerusalem mob, Gregory VII dying on his papal throne.

The agony of modern death is shown as well: a Bergamo partisan hanged upside down by the Fascists, Pope John praying in the Vatican Palace, the body of a mother watched by her weeping child, and an incontrollably tumbling human figure dying in space.

Manzù signed the work with the imprint of his right hand.

References:
Door of Death at stpetersbasilica.org

Revealed: how Scientologists infiltrated Britain's schools

The Sunday Times
January 07, 2007


Revealed: how Scientologists infiltrated Britain's schools
Insight: Drugs charity is front for ‘dangerous’ organisation


Devotees of the Church of Scientology have gained access to thousands of British children through a charity that visits schools to lecture on the dangers of drugs. A Sunday Times investigation has found that Marlborough College is one of more than 500 schools across Britain where the charity has taught.

Critics of the charity, Narconon, say it is a front to promote the teaching of Scientology — the controversial “religion” founded by L Ron Hubbard, the science fiction writer.

Full story here

Tropical diseases back as Europe warms up

The Sunday Times
January 07, 2007

Tropical diseases back as Europe warms up
By Maurice Chittenden

SCIENTISTS have uncovered the first evidence that diseases such as malaria, long thought beaten in Europe, are making a comeback because of climate change.

Holidaymakers could be at risk this summer because the disease has already re-emerged in Italy, where Mussolini once drained marshes to try to eradicate it.

Italy was declared malaria free in 1970 but cases of malaria are now being registered every year in the country’s southern regions.

Full story here

My Fortune Cookie told me: Never taunt a mammoth with a fruit pastille. Get a cookie from Miss Fortune

Thanks to:
Mulier Fortis and The Ironic Catholic .

Dante: St Dominic

Canto 12 of the Paradiso describes Dante`s journey through the Heaven of the Sun.

Prior to these lines, Dante (a Tertiary Franciscan) has listened to St Thomas Aquinas (a Dominican) praising St Francis of Assisi.

Now, in these lines, St Bonaventure (a Franciscan) is praising St Dominic, the founder of the Dominican order.

St Dominic is presented, together with St Francis as one of the two champions of the Church. As narrated by St Bonaventure, St Dominic is the epitome of loving self surrender to combat for the Faith. Zealous and learned, he fought heresy which is to be regarded as the enemy of Truth.

Lines 46 to 111 describe St Dominic:

In that part of the West where gentle Zephyr
rises to open those new leaves in which
Europe appears reclothed, not far from where, 48

Behind the waves that beat upon the coast,
the sun, grown weary from its lengthy course,
at times conceals itself from all men's eyes 51

There, Calaroga, blessed by fortune, sits
under the aegis of the mighty shield
on which the lion loses and prevails. 54

Within its walls was born the loving vassal
of Christian faith, the holy athlete, one
kind to his own and harsh to enemies; 57

No sooner was his mind created than
it was so full of living force that it,
still in his mother's womb, made her prophetic. 60

Then, at the sacred font, where Faith and he
brought mutual salvation as their dowry,
the rites of their espousal were complete. 63

The lady who had given the assent
for him saw, in a dream, astonishing
fruit that would spring from him and from his heirs. 66

And that his name might echo what he was,
a spirit moved from here to have him called
by the possessive of the one by whom 69

He was possessed completely. Dominic
became his name; I speak of him as one
whom Christ chose as the worker in His garden. 72

He seemed the fitting messenger and servant
of Christ: the very first love that he showed
was for the first injunction Christ had given. 75

His nurse would often find him on the ground,
alert and silent, in a way that said
'It is for this that I have come.' Truly, 78

His father was Felice and his mother
Giovanna if her name, interpreted,
is in accord with what has been asserted. 81

Not for the world, for which men now travail
along Taddeo's way or Ostian's,
but through his love of the true manna, he 84

Became, in a brief time, so great a teacher
that he began to oversee the vineyard
that withers when neglected by its keeper. 87

And from the seat that once was kinder to
the righteous poor (and now has gone astray,
not in itself, but in its occupant), 90

He did not ask to offer two or three
for six, nor for a vacant benefice,
nor decimus, quae sunt pauperum Dei- 93

But pleaded for the right to fight against
the erring world, to serve the seed from which
there grew the four-and-twenty plants that ring you. 96

Then he, with both his learning and his zeal,
and with his apostolic office, like
a torrent hurtled from a mountain source, 99

Coursed, and his impetus, with greatest force,
struck where the thickets of the heretics
offered the most resistance. And from him 102

There sprang the streams with which the Catholic
garden has found abundant watering,
so that its saplings have more life, more green. 105

If such was one wheel of the chariot
in which the Holy Church, in her defence,
taking the field, defeated enemies 108

Within, then you must see the excellence
of him-the other wheel-whom Thomas praised
so graciously before I made my entry.

Dante. Paradiso XII, 46-111
____________________________________________________________

Notes:

Lines 46-54:
This refers to Spain where the West Wind (Zephyr) rises. The coastline is the Bay of Biscay. St Domiinic was born in the city of Calahorra in Old Castile. The coat of arms of the city included two castles and two lions: one castle was above one lion; the other castle was below the other lion.

Lines 58-69
The legend is that St Dominic`s mother whilst pregnant had a vision that she would give birth to a dog with a burning torch in his mouth. The Dominicans are also called "the dogs of the Lord" (Domini canes)

Prior to his baptism, the godmother of St Dominic had a dream of him as a bright star in his brow which illuminated the world.

At Baptism, he was given the name "Dominic" which means "of the Lord".

Line 75
It is not clear which counsel is intended. It is generally believed to be poverty. But others think that it refers to the First Beatitude ("Blessed are the poor in Spirit")

Lines 81-87
Platonic philosophy provided that the inherent quality of things was in the name of the thing. Accordingly, Dominic`s father was called "Felix" (Latin for "happy" or blessed) and his mother was called "Giovanna" (Hebrew for "abounding in the grace of Jehovah")

Dominic dedicated himself to a life of true knowledge and wisdom for their own sake and not out of personal ambition. Dominic is contrasted with other theologians who pore over the works of Henry of Susa (Cardinal of Ostia in 1261) (renowned for a formal commentray on the Decretals, the Papal decrees forming part of the Canon Law) and Aldreotti (renowned for medical treatises based on Hippocrates and Galen). By concentrating on such works as the Decretalists and medical works, Dante is saying that theologians allow error to take hold.

Lines 88-90
Dante makes the important distinction between the Papacy which is guiltless and the holder of the office (in this case, Boniface VIII, whom Dante had consigned to Hell).

Lines 91-96
Unlike other clerics, Dominic did not apply for for dispensations to be allowed to reduce the amounts of income due to the poor. Rather, he only applied for permission to fight error and for Truth.

Line 102
Refers to Provence where the Albigensian heresy was prevalent. A crusade against them was launched in 1209.

Lines 109-117
Reference is made to the excellence to St Francis. However the degenerate state of the Franciscans is censured.
_____________________________________________________________


Further References:

Letter of Pope John Paul II to the Master General of the Order of Preachers From the Vatican, 28 June 2001

Fausto Appetente Die: On St Dominic Encyclical of Pope Benedict XV promulgated on June 29, 1921

Wikipedia: On St Dominic

Catholic Encyclopaedia: On St Dominic

Lives of the Brethern of the Order of Preachers 1206-1259 Translated by Placid Conway O.P.
Edited with Notes and Introduction by Bede Jarrett O.P.

On the 750th Anniversary of the Canonization of St. Dominic Letter from the Master of the Order. September 1984
Fr. Damian Byrne, OP

The Dominicans: A Short History By William A. Hinnebusch, O.P., D.Ph. (Oxon.)

The Contemplative Dimension of Dominican Spirituality

Bologna: Saint Dominic and the Basilica of San Domenico

Shrine of Saint Dominic, Basilica of Saint Dominic


Frontside of the Ark of Saint Dominic


Ark of St. Dominic (lower part)


Angel holding a candlestick by Michelangelo


St Dominic resurrects Napoleone Orsini after a fall from his horse and delivers him to his mother by Nicola Pisano and assistants


Left side : Miracle of the Bread; Back side : (left) Healing of Reginald, (right) Vision of Pope Innocent III

Baptism of St Dominic; Dominic sleeping on the floor; Dominic sells his parchments to feed the people (by Nicola Pisano and assistants); candlestick-holding angel (by Niccolò dell' Arca); (left lower side of the)


Golden reliquary with the head of Saint Dominic by Jacopo Roseto (1383)


Photo of the remains of Saint Dominic, Chapel of Saint Dominic

Saint Dominic, Dominic of Osma, often called Dominic de Guzmán and Domingo de Guzmán Garcés (1170 – August 6, 1221) was the founder of the Friars Preachers, popularly called the Dominicans or Order of Preachers (OP).

When arriving in Bologna in January 1218, he saw immediately that this university city was most convenient as his centre of activity.

Soon a convent was established at the Mascarella church by the Blessed Reginald of Orléans.

Soon afterwards they had to move to the church of San Nicolò of the Vineyards.

St. Dominic settled in this church and held in this church the first two General Chapters of the order.

Saint Dominic died in this church on 6 August 1221 and was moved into a simple sarcophagus in 1233.

This church was later expanded and grew into the Basilica of Saint-Dominic, consecrated by Pope Innocent IV in 1251.

In 1267 Saint Dominic's remains were moved to the exquisite shrine, made by Nicola Pisano and his workshop, Arnolfo di Cambio and with later additions by Niccolò dell' Arca and the young Michelangelo.

At the back of this shrine, the head of St. Dominic is enshrined in a huge, golden reliquary, a masterpiece of the goldsmith Jacopo Roseto da Bologna (1383)

Ashley X

The story in yesterday`s Times about the girl Ashley X who suffers from encephalopathy but was treated by doctors to keep her small (see The Times) still arouses discussion.

A major part of the treatment involved a procedure which in effect sterilised Ashley X.

It might be useful if one is reminded of the time (from the 1920s to the Seventies) when there was on the statute book laws which permitted the compulsory sterilisation of those who were deemed "imbeciles".

In 1924, Virginia, like a majority of states then, enacted eugenic sterilization laws. Virginia's law allowed state institutions to operate on individuals to prevent the conception of what were believed to be "genetically inferior" children. Charlottesville native Carrie Buck (1906-1983), involuntarily committed to a state facility near Lynchburg, was chosen as the first person to be sterilized under the new law.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in Buck v. Bell, on 2 May 1927, affirmed the Virginia law. After Buck, more than 8,000 other Virginians were sterilized before the most relevant parts of the act were repealed in 1974.

Later evidence eventually showed that Buck and many others had no "hereditary defects."

See University of Virginia Healthsystem: Center for Biomedical Ethics website

Basilica della Santissima Annunziata, Firenze

Piazza della Santissima Annunziata, with the Basilica and the Statue of Ferdinando I by Giambologna and Tacca (1608)

High Altar in the Basilica

Shrine to the Madonna of the Annunciation

Organ (1628)


Nave

Baccio Bandinelli (Firenze, 1493-1560).Pieta, 1539

The figure of Nicodemus is that of Bandinelli

Chiostro Grande

Jacopo Carucci (May 24, 1494 — January 2, 1557), usually known Pontormo
The Visitation
Chiostrino dei Voti

Andrea del Sarto, true name Andrea d'Agnolo di Francesco di Luca di Paolo del Migliore, (1486-87 - 1531)

Madonna del Sacco

Chiostro Grande

See museums in florence and  Susan and Joanna Horner, Walks in Florence: Churches, Streets and Palaces : Chapter XXVI: Convent and Church of the SS. Annunziata

.

The Basilica della Santissima Annunziata (Basilica of the Most Holy Annunciation) is a Roman Catholic minor basilica in Florence and the mother church of the Servite order. It is located at the northeastern side of the Piazza Santissima Annunziata.

It is the principal Marian shrine in Florence.

The principal feast day is March 25th which was also the date of the Florentine New Year for many centuries. The Florentine capodanno was and is celebrated in this Church.

The church stands on the pre-existent oratory of the Servi di Maria (1235). The oratory was built around the miraculous image of Our Lady of the Annunciation by seven young noblemen who decided to take monastic vows and give up worldly pleasures.

Michelozzo built the First Cloister in the mid 15th century. The main body of the Church, started in 1440 by Michelozzo and Pagno Portigiani, was later altered by Alberti, who created the impressive Tribune.

The atrium or portico of the church faces the piazza, and is composed of seven arches, raised on slender Corinthian columns. The central arch was erected by Pope Leo X., after a design by Antonio di San Gallo, and in 1512 it was decorated with a fresco representing Faith, Hope, and Charity, by Jacopo Carucci da Pontormo (1493-1588); but of which unfortunately little now remains.

There are three doors under the portico; that to the left opens on the cloister and leads to the convent. To the right is the entrance to the Chapel of the Pucci family, dedicated to San Sebastiano. The central door under the portico opens on the cortile, or entrance court.

The Church of the SS. Annunziata itself is composed of a single nave, with five chapels on either side, two short transepts, and a circular choir, surmounted by a cupola. The whole is richly decorated with paintings, stucco, and gilding. The interior is excessively baroque. If you are fond of the Baroque, you`ll swoon. It is a surfeit of the Baroque.

In 1252, a painting of the Annunciation, which had been begun by one of the monks but abandoned in despair because he did not feel he could create a beautiful enough image, was supposedly completed by an angel while he slept. The interior of the church is dominated by the large tabernacle designed by Michelozzo to house the miraculous painting, itself now so frequently repainted that it is impossible to distinguish clearly. Florentine brides traditionally visit the shrine to leave their bouquets

Before the church was as much decorated as it now is, it was customary to suspend from the roof waxen images of living eminent persons. This privilege was only granted to citizens entitled to the highest magisterial offices, or to foreign sovereigns. The effigy of Lorenzo de' Medici, by Andrea Verocchio, was thus suspended in the dress he wore when he miraculously escaped death from the daggers of the Pazzi. To remove any such effigy was considered the greatest insult and disgrace; and if one fell to the ground it was thought an evil omen.

The images of Florentine citizens were hung on one side of the church; those of Popes and foreign potentates on the other. When the SS. Annunziata was altered to please modern taste, these effigies were transferred to the outer cortile.The atrium which was built to house these figures, the Chiostrino dei Voti, is covered in frescoes begun in 1516 to mark the canonisation of Filippo Benizi, fifth Prior General of the Servites. In the reign of Pietro Leopoldo (1786) the effigies were wholly removed. The wax effigies were made into candles.

The Cloister of the SS. Annunziata was built by Simone Pollajuolo, "Il Cronaca," towards the end of the fifteenth century. It is surrounded by frescos, chiefly by Bernardino Barbatelli, called Pocetti, who was born in Florence in1542.

The organ (1628) is the oldest in Florence and the second oldest in Italy.

In the Chapel of San Luca, the patron saint of painters, Cellini, Pontormo, Franciabigio, Bartolommeo Bandinelli, Pietro Tacca, Giovanni Montorsoli, Lorenzo Bartolini. and other masters are buried.

Giambologna is buried in the Flemish funeral chapel (which he designed himself), situated in the church. His last work, the statue of Duke Ferdinando I (finished afterhis death by his successor Tacca), is in the Square outside.

Principal Works of Art are detailed and their images can be viewed at

For the website of Provincia della Santissima Annunziata dell'Ordine dei Servi di Maria, see http://www.osmprovinciassannunziata.it/annunziata.htm

The Town of Luni

The site of the Ruins of Luni





Roman amphitheatre

«Se tu riguardi Luni e Orbisaglia
come sono ite, e come se ne vanno
di retro ad esse Chiusi e Sinigaglia,

udir come le schiatte si disfanno
non ti parrà nova cosa né forte,
poscia che le cittadi termine hanno.»

(Dante Alighieri, Divina Commedia - Par.XVI-73,79)


"Consider Luni, Urbisaglia, how
they went to ruin (Sinigaglia follows,
and Chiusi, too, will soon have vanished); then,

if you should hear of families undone,
you will find nothing strange or difficult
in that-since even cities meet their end."


Founded by the Romans in 177 BC with the name Luna, it was a military stronghold for the campaigns against the Ligurians.

In the 5th century it was still notable, as it was chosen as the site of an episcopal see. Captured by the Goths in the following century, it was reconquered by the Byzantines in 552, who however lost it to the Lombards in 642. The latter damaged the city's economy, favouring the trades routes that passed through the nearby Lucca.

In 1015 it was conquered by the caliph Mujāhid al-‘Āmirī with his Sardinian ships: when Pisa and Genoa beat back his forces, Luni was left destroyed.

The spreading of malaria in the area and the silting up of the port contributed to the steep decline of Luni. In 1058 the whole population moved to Sarzana, while other refugees founded Ortonovo and Nicola.

In 1202 Innocent III transferred the see to Sarzana but the name of Luni within the title of the episcopal see remained. In 1355 Charles IV conferred on the bishops of Luni the title of prince of the Holy Roman Empire. Until the mid twentieth century, the title of the see was "Luni-Sarzana-Brugnato".

In 1306 Dante went to Sarzana, and succeeded in settling a dispute between Bishop Antonio Camulla and Dante`s patron, Marquess Malaspina. The poet's sojourn here inspired the "terzine" of the "Divine Comedy" quoted above.

Ruins are still visible of an amphitheatre, a semicircular theatre, a circus, and an aquarium. Numerous sixth century inscriptions, some of which are Christian, have been found at Luni. Excavations on the site have now proceeded and on site there is an Archaeological Museum. The old Via Aurelia is visible.

A record of its ancient importance survives in the name of Lunigiana.

A Modern Hero

Who has ridden the Underground and not wondered: "What if I fell to the tracks as a train came in? What would I do?"

And who has not thought: "What if someone else fell? Would I jump to the rescue?"

Wesley Autrey, 50-year-old construction worker, faced both those questions in an instant in New York on Tuesday, and got his answers almost as quickly.

Afterwards he said: “I don’t feel like I did something spectacular; I just saw someone who needed help. I did what I felt was right.”

Full story in Chicago Tribune here

Hat tip to Generations for Life

Notre Dame Gregorian Chants 12/28/06

Gregorian chant concert at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, December 28, 2006.

Classics in schools are 'facing extinction'

The Times
January 03, 2007


Classics in schools are 'facing extinction'
By Alexandra Blair, Education Correspondent


The teaching of Classics in British schools has become a postcode lottery, with Latin and Greek likely to disappear from the state sector in some parts of the country in as little as five years.

A study into the demise of classical languages suggests that they could vanish from all schools within 25 years unless substantial changes are made to the GCSE.

Full story here

Paradise: Canto XXXIII

One of the most significant cantos in Dante`s Divine Comedy is Canto XXXIII.

In this the last Canto, Dante`s final guide, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, prays to the Virgin Mary that Dante may have grace given him to contemplate the brightness of the Divine Majesty. This is granted.

Dante feels his soul swell with new power and grow calm in rapture as his eyes are permitted the direct vision of God.

Dante then himself prays to God for ability to show forth some part of the celestial glory in his writings.

Lastly, he is admitted to a glimpse of the great mystery; the Trinity, and the Union of Man with God. There is no measure of how long the vision endures. It passes, and Dante is once more mortal and fallible. Raised by God's presence, he had looked into the Mystery and had begun to understand its power and majesty.

Returned to himself, there is no power in him capable of speaking the truth of what he saw. Yet the impress of the truth is stamped upon his soul, which he now knows will return to be one with God's Love.


____________________________________________________


"Virgin mother, daughter of your Son,
Humbler and higher than all other creatures,
Fixed aim and goal of the eternal plan,

"You are the one who lifted human nature
5 To such nobility that its own Maker
Did not disdain to be made of its making.

"Within your womb was lit once more the flame
Of that love through whose warmth this flower opened
To its full bloom in everlasting peace.

10 "To us up here you are the torch of noon
Blazing with love, and for the mortals down there
You are the living fountainhead of hope.

"Lady, you are so highly placed and helpful,
Whoever seeks grace and does not call on you
15 Wants his desires to fly up without wings.

"Your loving heart not only offers aid
To those who ask for it, but oftentimes
Free-handedly anticipates the asking.

"In you is mercy, in you largeheartedness,
20 In you compassion, and in you is found
Whatever good exists in any creature.

"Now this man who from down the deepest pit
Of the whole universe up to this point
Has seen the lives of spirits, one by one,

25 "Begs by your grace that you will give him strength
To enable him to rise on with his eyes
Still higher to the summit of salvation.

"And I, who never burned for my own vision
More than I burn for his, pour out to you
30 All of my prayers, and pray they be sufficient

"For you to scatter from him by your prayers
Every last cloud of his mortality
That he may see revealed the highest Pleasure.

"I pray you also, Queen, for you can do
35 Whatever you will, that after he has seen
This vision, you keep his affections wholesome.

"Watch and restrain his human impulses:
See Beatrice with so many blessed spirits
Clasping their hands to join me in this prayer."

40 The eyes God loves and reverences the most,
Fastened upon this praying saint, displayed
How deeply she is pleased by devout prayer.

Then her eyes turned to the eternal Light
Into whose depth we may believe the eyes
45 Of no other creature penetrates more clearly.

And I, now drawing closer to the end
Of every longing, lifted to that end,
Just as I should, the flame of all my longing.

Bernard gave me a signal and a smile
50 To look straight up, but by myself already
I was intent as he would have me be,

Because my sight, becoming crystal clear,
Was piercing deeper and deeper through the rays
Of that deep Light which in itself is true.

55 From that point on, my power to see was stronger
Than speech that fails before such sights can show,
As memory falls short of the beyond.

As someone who while dreaming sees a vision
And, after he has dreamed, the feeling stays
60 Impressed, but all the rest slips from his mind,

I am like that, for almost all my seeing
Now falls away, but sweetness sprung from it
Still drips down, drop by drop, into my heart.

So is the snow unsealed beneath the sunlight;
65 So were the sayings of the Sibyl upon
The light leaves left to drift off in the wind.

O highest Light, lifted up so far
Above all mortal thinking, lend my mind,
Once more, a little of what you were like,

70 And grant my tongue such powerful expression
That it may leave behind a single spark
Of glory for a people still to come.

For by returning some spark to my mind
75 And sounding out a little in these lines,
Your triumph shall be thought of more profoundly.

I think I would have been lost in a daze
With the dazzling I endured from that live beam
If my eyes once had turned away from it.

I remember I grew bolder for this reason
80 In bearing up with it, until I merged
My gazing with the infinite Goodness.

O grace abounding, by which I have dared
To fix my eyes through the eternal Light
So deeply that my sight was spent in it!

85 Within its depths I saw gathered together,
Bound by love into a single volume,
Leaves that lie scattered through the universe.

Substance and accidents and their relations
I saw as though they fused in such a way
90 That what I say is but a gleam of light.

The universal pattern of this knot
I believe I saw, because in telling this,
I feel my gladness growing ever larger.

One moment made more slip my memory than
95 Twenty-five centuries reft from the adventure
That awed Neptune with the shadow of the Argo.

So my mind, held in absolute suspense,
Was staring fixed, intent, and motionless,
And by its staring grew the more inflamed.

100 Within that Light a person is so changed
It is impossible to give consent
Ever to turn from it to other sights

Because the Good, the object of the will,
Is gathered all in it, and out of it
105 The thing that there is perfect has some flaw.

Now shall my telling of what I remember
Fall far below the babbling of a baby
Still bathing its tongue at the mother’s breast.

Not that there is more than a single semblance
110 Within that living Light on which I looked
And which is always what it was before,

But by the sight that gathered strength in me
As I gazed on, what was One in appearance
Was altering for me as I was changing.

115 In the profound and shining-clear Existence
Of the deep Light appeared to me three circles
Of one dimension and three different colors.

One seemed to be reflected by the other,
Rainbow by rainbow, while the third seemed fire
120 Breathed equally from one and from the other.

O how pale now is language and how paltry
For my conception! And for what I saw
My words are not enough to call them meager.

O everlasting Light, you dwell alone
125 In yourself, know yourself alone, and known
And knowing, love and smile upon yourself!

That middle circle which appeared in you
To be conceived as a reflected light,
After my eyes had studied it a while,

130 Within itself and in its coloring
Seemed to be painted with our human likeness
So that my eyes were wholly focused on it.

As the geometer who sets himself
To square the circle and who cannot find,
135 For all his thought, the principle he needs,

Just so was I on seeing this new vision
I wanted to see how our image fuses
Into the circle and finds its place in it,

Yet my wings were not meant for such a flight —
140 Except that then my mind was struck by lightning
Through which my longing was at last fulfilled.

Here powers failed my high imagination:
But by now my desire and will were turned,
Like a balanced wheel rotated evenly,

145 By the Love that moves the sun and the other stars.

_________________________________________________


Prayer to the Virgin

Saint Bernard’s prayer to the Virgin praises her as the aim and purpose of creation since through her the Son of God was a human being; through her, in turn, human beings return to the Son.

The prayer to the Virgin at the beginning of the Canto, which Dante derived from St. Bernard, seems to have been Chaucer's favorite passage in the Divine Comedy. He quotes it in The Prioress' Tale in the Canterbury Tales. He adapts it for the "Invocation to the Virgin" that is part of the introduction to The Second Nun's Tale.

More recently, Popes have quoted with approval this part of Dante`s Canto, especially Pope John Paul II and more recently Pope Benedict XVI.

A few quotations will suffice to illustrate this.

Benedict XVI

Message for Lent 2006 (29 September, 2005)
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/lent/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20050929_lent-2006_en.html

Angelus 8 December 2006
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/angelus/2006/documents/hf_ben-xvi_ang_20061208_immaculate_en.html

Angelus 8 December 2005
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/angelus/2005/documents/hf_ben-xvi_ang_20051208_immaculate_en.html

John Paul II

Apostolic Letter: Rosarium Virginis Mariae
paragraph 16: Praying to Christ with Mary
http://www.clerus.org/pls/clerus/cn_clerus.h_start_consult_ext?dicastero=2&tema=-1&argomento=-1&sottoargomento=-1&lingua=2&Classe=1&operazione=ges_doc&rif=256&rif1=256lunedi
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_20021016_rosarium-virginis-mariae_en.html

Encyclical of John Paul II on the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Life of the Pilgrim Church promulgated on 25 March 1987 (Redemptoris Mater)
http://www.ewtn.com/library/ENCYC/JP2MOTHE.HTM

Sunday, 31 August 1997
Address at a Reading of Dante`s Divine Comedy
Sunday, 31 August 1997
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/1997/august/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19970831_dante_en.html

Homily at Conclusion of 20th International Marian Congress
24th September 2000
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/homilies/2000/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_20000924_marian-mariological-congress_it.html

Speech at Pastoral Visit to Velletri and Frascati
7th September 1980
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/1980/september/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19800907_autorita-velletri_it.html

Homily at the end of the Month of Mary
31st May 1979
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/homilies/1979/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_19790531_mese-mariano_it.html

Angelus Talk at Pastoral Visit to Diocese of Siena
14th September 1980
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/angelus/1980/documents/hf_jp-ii_ang_19800914_it.html

Angelus Talk
8th December 2001
http://212.77.1.245/news_services/bulletin/news/10063.php?index=10063&po_date=08.12.2001&lang=ge

_________________________________________________

The Three Beatific Visions

Three moments of vision make up the movement of the final canto, climaxing in the last face to face meeting with the Incarnate Son. In the first moment, Dante views the world as composed of numerous pages bound together in a single volume within the eternal light:

Within its depths I saw gathered together,
Bound by love into a single volume,
Leaves that lie scattered through the universe.
(Paradise XXXIII, 85-87)

The image is all important because, the poet states, he believes he saw in it "the universal pattern of this knot" that makes the whole cohere in one. The famous metaphor, in fact, contains a meaning too often missed. The volume here is a sacred text: in the book of nature we are to read the Word of God, the Lord revealed in the book of the Gospels.

The second moment of vision comes in the form of the three circles of Light; they are of "one dimension and three different colors":

One seemed to be reflected by the other,
Rainbow by rainbow, while the third seemed fire
Breathed equally from one and from the other.
(Paradise XXXIII, 118-120)

The poet confesses that his words fail to match his conception of the Trinity. All he can manage is to exclaim in the form of a prayer:

O everlasting Light, you dwell alone
In yourself, know yourself alone, and known
And knowing, love and smile upon yourself!
(Paradise XXXIII, 124-126)

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit gaze, meditate, and smile upon its Self — the Three in One — circle within circle within circle as the Knower, Known, and Knowing and the Lover, Loved, and Loving.

The essential oneness and circularity of God, always coming back on itself (while subtly emphasizing the intimate connection between God and the Virgin) is expressed through the sound of the original words in Italian:

O luce etterna che sole in te sidi
sola t'intendi, e da te intelletta
e intendente te ami e arridi!

(Paradiso 33, 124-26)

The moment of the third vision arrives, the epitome and apex of the poem:

That middle circle which appeared in you
To be conceived as a reflected light,
After my eyes had studied it a while,

Within itself and in its coloring
Seemed to be painted with our human likeness
So that my eyes were wholly focused on it.
(Paradise XXXIII. 127-132)

Fascinated and drawn to this likeness of our features (nostra effige), Dante longs to know how in "this new vision" our image fuses into "the circle and finds its place in it." His own capacities fail, but then he is "struck by lightning" and grasps the God-man in the center as embodying divine Light that shines from within the features through the eyes. Gaze meets gaze, and the seer becomes one with the "Love that moves the sun and the other stars."

Again both Pope Benedict XVI and John Paul II have used and referred to these poetic visions, most notably by Benedict XVI in relation to his first encyclical.

Benedict XVI

Address to the participants at meeting of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum"
Sala Clementina: Monday, 23 January 2006

"The cosmic excursion in which Dante, in his "Divine Comedy", wishes to involve the reader, ends in front of the perennial Light that is God himself, before that Light which is at the same time "the love that moves the sun and the other stars" (Par. XXXIII, v. 145). Light and love are one and the same. They are the primordial creative powers that move the universe.

If these words in Dante's Paradiso betray the thought of Aristotle, who saw in the eros the power that moves the world, Dante nevertheless perceives something completely new and inconceivable for the Greek philosopher. Not only that the eternal Light is shown in three circles which Dante addresses using those terse verses familiar to us: "O everlasting Light, you dwell alone/In yourself, know yourself alone, and known/And knowing, love and smile upon yourself!" (Par. XXXIII, vv. 124-126).

As a matter of fact, even more overwhelming than this revelation of God as a trinitarian circle of knowledge and love, is the perception of a human face - the face of Jesus Christ - which, to Dante, appears in the central circle of the Light. God, infinite Light, whose immeasurable mystery the Greek philosopher perceived, this God has a human face and - we may add - a human heart.

This vision of Dante reveals, on the one hand, the continuity between Christian faith in God and the search developed by reason and by the world of religions; on the other, however, a novelty appears that surpasses all human research, the novelty that only God himself can reveal to us: the novelty of a love that moved God to take on a human face, even to take on flesh and blood, the entire human being.

The eros of God is not only a primordial cosmic power; it is love that created man and that bows down over him, as the Good Samaritan bent down to the wounded and robbed man, lying on the side of the road that went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.

Today, the word "love" is so spoiled, worn out and abused that one almost fears to pronounce it. And yet, it is a fundamental word, an expression of the primordial reality. We cannot simply abandon it, but we must take it up again, purify it and bring it to its original splendour so that it can illumine our life and guide it on the right path.

This is the understanding that led me to choose "love" as the theme of my first Encyclical. I wanted to try to express for our time and our existence some of what Dante boldly summed up in his vision. He tells of a "sight" that "was altering" as he "gazed on" it and was being interiorly changed (cf. Par. XXXIII, vv. 112-114).

It is precisely this: faith becomes a vision-understanding that transforms us. It was my aim to shed light on the centrality of faith in God; in that God who took on a human face and heart.

Faith is not a theory that can be personalized or even set aside. It is something very concrete: it is the criteria that determines our lifestyle. In an epoch where hostility and greed have become superpowers, an epoch where we support the abuse of religion to the point of deifying hatred, neutral rationality alone cannot protect us. We need the living God, who loved us even to death. And so, in this Encyclical, the themes "God", "Christ" and "Love" are fused together as the central guide of Christian faith. I wanted to reveal the humanity of faith, of which eros is a part; the "yes" of man to his bodiliness created by God, a "yes" that in an indissoluble matrimony between man and woman finds its form rooted in creation. "

See: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2006/january/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20060123_cor-unum_en.html


John Paul II

Homily in Warsaw at closing of National Eucharistic Congress
14th June 1987
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/homilies/1987/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_19870614_cong-eucar-polacco_it.html

Talk to a Group of Employees of ENEL
29th November 1980
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/1980/november/documents/hf_jp_ii_spe_19801129_enel_it.html

Talk at the Opening of an Exhibition of Dante in the Vatican
30th May 1985
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/1985/may/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19850530_mostra-dante_it.html

Talk to the Council of the Dante Alighieri Society
13th June 1996
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/1996/june/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19960613_dante-alighieri_it.html


More recently the influence of Dante`s Paradise is seen in and Address of Cardinal James Stafford at the Annual Conference of the "Society of Catholic Liturgy" at Northampton, Pennsylvania on 21st September 2006
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/tribunals/apost_penit/documents/rc_trib_appen_doc_20060921_stafford-reconciliation_en.html

Paradise: The Final Vision

At noon on Easter Wednesday Dante mounts with Beatrice straight up into the world of light. The planets and stars he passes through spell out in images and language a vision. Through the nine spheres of the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Fixed Stars, Primum Mobile, and beyond them to the Empyrean, Dante the pilgrim moves up into the rose of paradise to the vision of the triune God.

Dante’s vision of Holy and Easter Weeks in 1300 raised him to mystic heights, but how was one to re-visit such an apex of human consciousness and make it real to others? In the opening of Paradise, the poet sounds a note that he will ring often again in the lines that follow:

I have been to that heaven where his light
Beams brightest and seen things that none, returning,
Has the knowledge or the power to repeat,
Because as it draws near to its desire,
Our intellect sinks down to such a depth
That memory cannot trace its way back there.(Paradise I, 4-9)


So overwhelming was the experience that the mind cannot retain the profound dimensions felt at the time.

Like the previous canticles, Paradise proceeds to its climax through a series of personal encounters between the pilgrim and the spirits of the dead. Dante’s drive to go onward first comes from his contact with Beatrice as she grows more luminous and gracious in his eyes. But Dante also learns from others along the way. In Canto VI, the Emperor Justinian provides Dante with a summary of heroic deeds accomplished under the ensign of the Roman eagle. Dante’s great-great-grandfather Cacciaguida in Canto XVI offers a detailed account of the past achievements of noble families in Florence. Both histories follow a pattern of rise and fall, the ancient prowess yielding to gradual decline and breakdown into factions. The Holy Roman Empire on the national and local levels has fallen on evil days. As Charles Martel of Anjou predicts in Canto VIII, darker days of warfare lie ahead.

The panoramic view of Roman history provided by Justinian and the story of the Florentine families and of Dante’s own lineage recounted by Cacciaguida present the public and personal narratives that the poet balances in turn with the past and future summaries of events. The public prophecy of Martel is counterpointed by the private revelations of Cacciaguida regarding Dante’s own exile and suffering.

Two of the most impressive speeches in the Comedy are the eulogy of Saint Francis by Saint Thomas Aquinas in Canto XI and the eulogy of Saint Dominic by Saint Bonaventure in Canto XII. In each case the speaker follows his words of praise for the founder of the other religious order with a denunciation of the present state of his own: Thomas laments the degeneracy of the Dominicans while Bonaventure grieves for the loss of the original Franciscan fervour.

Three visions of Christ occur in the journey through paradise: the cross seen in Mars in Canto XIV, the triumph of the risen Lord in Canto XXIII, and the vision of the human Jesus in the center of the circle of Godhead in the final canto.

Three moments of vision make up the movement of the final canto, climaxing in the last face to face meeting with the Incarnate Son.

Inferno: Canto X

Inferno -- Canto X
Heretics, Farinata, Cavalcante

Now, by a hidden passageway that wound
Between the rack and ramparts of the city,
My master travels and I after him.

"O highest virtue who through these arrant rings
Lead me around as you please," I began,
"Speak to me and satisfy my yearnings:

"The people here who lie within the tombs,
Can they be seen? Already all the lids
Are raised off and no one is standing guard,"

And he responded, "They shall all be sealed
When they come back here from Jehosaphat
With the bodies that they have left up there.

"In this section is found the cemetery
Of Epicurus and his followers,
All those who claim the soul dies with the body.

"So the question that you have put to me
Soon shall be satisfied while we are here,
As shall the wish that you have kept from me."

And I: "Good guide, I do not hide my heart:
I only want now to have less to say
As more than once before you prompted me."

"O Tuscan, passing through the fiery city
Alive and speaking with such frank decorum,
Be kind enough to pause now in this place.

"Your way of talking makes it clear you come
Of the stock born of that same noble city
To which I was perhaps too troublesome."

So suddenly had this sound issued from
One of the coffins there that I trembled
And drew a little closer to my guide.

"Turn around," he said. "What are you doing?
Look here at Farinata straightening up!
From waist high you will see the whole of him."

I had already fixed my eyes on his
While he emerged with his forehead and chest,
Looking as though he held hell in contempt.

The quick, assuring hands of my leader
Pushed me toward him between the sepulchers —
He said, "Suit your words to the occasion."

When I had come up nearer to his tomb,
He stared a moment and then, disdainfully,
Questioned me, "Who were your ancestors?"

I who was anxious to be dutiful
Kept nothing back but told him everything.
At this he raised his brows ever so slightly,

Then said, "They were so fiercely inimical
To me and to my forebears and my party
That twice I had to send them scampering."

"Though they were driven out, yet from all sides
At both times they came back," I said to him;
"But your men never really learned that art."

At that there rose before my sight a shade
Beside him — visible down to his chin —
I guess he raised himself up on his knees.

He gazed all around me, as though intent
To see if I were there with someone else,
But when his hope had been completely dashed,

Tearfully he said, "If you journey through
This blind prison by reason of high genius,
Where is my son? Why is he not with you?"

I answered, "I do not journey on my own:
He who awaits there leads me through this place —
Perhaps your Guido had felt scorn for him."

His question and his form of punishment
Allowed me already to read his name;
On that account, my answer was so full.

Suddenly he stood and cried out, "How?
You said ‘had felt’? Is he not still alive?
Does not the lovely light still strike his eyes?"

And when he had observed my hesitation
Before I answered him, he shrank back down
And would not show his face to me again.

That noble-hearted shade at whose request
I’d halted my steps did not change his look
Or bow his head or bend his body down,

But, picking up once more our first exchange,
He said, "If they have poorly learned that art,
That fact torments me far more than this bed.

"Not fifty times, however, shall the face
Of the lady reigning here rekindle light
Before you know how heavy that art weighs.

"And, so may you return to the sweet world,
Tell me why those people are so unjust
In all the laws they pass against my kindred?"

Then I replied, "The rout and massacre
Which stained the stream of the Arbia red
Inspires such petitions in our temple."

At that he sighed, shook his head, and said,
"In that harsh action I was not alone:
Surely with cause I joined in with the others;

"But there I was alone where all concurred
To topple Florence to the ground, the only
One to stand up for her openly."

"Ah, as you wish your seed to find true peace,"
I answered, "help me to unravel the knot
That has so tangled up my thinking here.

"It seems, if I am right, that you can see
Beforehand what time bears along with it,
But what the present holds you cannot grasp."

"We see, like someone suffering poor vision,
Those things," he said, "that are far off from us:
Such light the Sovereign Lord still proffers us.

"When things approach or happen, our intellect
Is useless; unless others inform us here
We would know nothing of your human state.

"So you can comprehend how wholly dead
Shall be our knowledge at that moment when
The door of the future has slammed shut."

Then, as though in sorrow for my failure,
I said, "Now will you tell that fallen man
That his son is still there among the living.

"And if, before, I remained silent
To his response, inform him I was thinking
About the problem you have just cleared up."

Already my master was calling me back,
And so I begged that spirit with fresh haste
To tell me who were with him in the tombs.

"Here lie with me more than a thousand,"
He said; "Here is Frederick the Second,
And the Cardinal. . ., but I name no more."

With that he vanished, and I turned my steps
Toward the ancient poet while I pondered
Those words that seemed so threatening to me.

He moved along, and then as we two walked,
He questioned me, "Why are you so perturbed?"
And I satisfied him with my answer.

"Store in your mind what you have heard set forth
Against yourself," that sage commanded me.
"Now pay attention," and he raised a finger:

"When you shall stand before the gentle beams
Of her whose beautiful eyes see everything,
From her you’ll learn the journey of your life."

With that he turned his steps off to the left.
We quit the wall and headed toward the center
Along a path that strikes down to a valley

Which, even there, sickened us with its stench.

_______________________________________________


Dante and Virgil finally enter into the City of Dis. Once inside the City, Dante sees everywhere uncovered tombs inside of which there are hot flames and growing laments. Virgil informs Dante that inside those sepulchres are condemned the arch-Heretics.

Amongst them are Farinata degli Uberti and Guido Cavalcanti.

Farinata degli Uberti was the most important man of the Ghibelline faction in the 13th century history of Florence. In 1248 he expelled the Guelfs from Florence, but they returned and in 1258 expelled the Ghibellines, including Farinata who took refuge in Siena. His name is connected with the Battle of Montaperti (a town near Siena) in 1260. There the Guelf forces lead by the Florentines were totally overcome. Following their victory the Ghibellines held a council in Empoli, near Florence, in which it was decided to destroy Florence. Farinata was the only Ghibelline to oppose this plan, and so Florence was spared. Farinata died in 1264. He was buried in Santa Reparata.

A few years later, in 1283, a trial was held in Florence against him and he was posthumously condemned as a heretic. The bodies of Farinata and his wife were exhumed and burnt. The problem of heresy was strongly felt during Dante's time. It is important to remember that sects of heretics were widely spread in Italy, Florence included. Many Ghibellines were known as heretics. Dante places Farinata among the Heretics of Circle 6.

Guido Cavalcanti was the son of Cavalcante dei Cavalcanti, Guido was the most important Florentine poet in Dante's time. He was born fifteen years before Dante's birth and died in 1300, at the age of 50.

After Dante, Guido Cavalcanti is the most prominent poet of the Sweet New Style and of the 13th century. Dante considered his as his "friend" and calls him "the first among my friends" in the Vita Nuova. Of a noble family, Guido was also active in Florentine political life. He was a Guelf and had married the daughter of Farinata (a Ghibelline) at a time when efforts were being made to bring together the two opposing political factions.

As many intellectual men of the period, Guido too denied the immortality of the soul and therefore he was a heretic. Dante places him among the Heretics of Circle 6, where Guido's father-in-law, Farinata, is also found.

After the meeting with Farinata and Guido, the two Poets arrive at the edge of the Sixth Circle. The stench that comes from the Circle below is so strong that they decide to stop a while by a coffin in order to get somewhat accostumed to the smell. In the coffin there is the soul of Pope Anastasius II.

Anastasius II was Pope from 496 to 498, and is placed by Dante in a tomb among the Heretics of Circle 6. Dante may have confused Anastasius II with his contemporary Anastasious I, Roman emperor of the East from 491 to 518. The Emperor's heretical inclination (he was a Monophysite) stirred religious unrest throughout the Empire. The confusion between the two was a tradition well established before Dante's time.

The idea that knowledge in these souls will be, at the end of times, totally extinct, is part of the contrapasso.


References:

Farinata degli Uberti

Guido Cavalcanti

The Moral Situation of the Reader of Inferno

The Moral Situation of the Reader of Inferno

By Robert Hollander


"One of the most difficult problems for a twenty-first-century reader of the Comedy is to find a moral point of view from which to consider the actions portrayed in the poem. Doing so is not quite as problematic for readers of the last two cantiche, in which those on their way to becoming saints in heaven and those already there contribute to the establishment of a moral ground that is unmistakable.

Inferno, on the other hand, at least seems to be a far less morally-defined space. Indeed, debates about how one is meant to respond to the most attractive sinners whom one meets in Hell have been frequent features of nineteenth- and twentieth-century discussions of the poem.

The re-discovery of Dante in Europe at the end of the eighteenth century brought his poem into a context that tended to reformulate its moral argument. Later Romantic readers only widened this tendency.

The understanding of Dante that one eventually finds in many authoritative late-nineteenth (e.g., Francesco De Sanctis) and early-twentieth-century (e.g., Benedetto Croce) critics does not, one should probably agree, conform with the text. How may one define this view of the poem? In keeping with some of the most attractive tenets of Romantic artistic values -- spontaneity of expression, vividness of portrayed emotion, gravity of subject matter, integrity of the writer's feeling -- Dante became, as it were, a contemporary of the Romantics. The core of such a view is located in the moral point of view of the critic, not in that of the poem.

In a not-very-exaggerated shorthand, Francesca, one of the most beguiling of Dante's sinners, replaces the sainted Beatrice as the guarantor of the poem's (and the poet's) greatness; Dante becomes the unrivalled portraitist of Great Feeling. The debate that continues into our own day has its roots in the Romantic rediscovery of Dante, one based particularly on readings of the most moving figures in the Inferno: Francesca da Rimini (canto V), Farinata degli Uberti (canto X), Pier delle Vigne (canto XIII), Brunetto Latini (canto XV), Ulysses (canto XXVI), and Ugolino della Gherardesca (canto XXXIII), with Francesca, Ulysses, and Ugolino representing perhaps the three most beloved and discussed of Dante's Infernal characters

One should try to honour the distinction the text itself clearly draws, that between a narrator, who has had a journey through the created universe, culminating in his vision of God, and who, as a result, understands all things about as well as a human being can, and a protagonist who moves, like St. Augustine before him (in Dante's own formulation "from not good to good, from good to better, and from better to best," when at the last he becomes the narrator ([Par I 1-36]).

Dante's poem creates some of its drama from the tension that operates between the narrator's view of events (in Inferno often represented by Virgil's interpretive remarks) and that of the protagonist. What makes one`s task difficult is that at some pivotal moments neither the narrator nor Virgil makes clear judgmental statements of a moralising kind. Instead, the poet uses irony to undercut the alluring words of sinners who present themselves rather as victims than as perpetrators of outrage in the eye of God."

Full article here

The National Gallery, London: Painting of the Month

The Wilton Diptych

Full title: Richard II presented to the Virgin and Child by his Patron Saint John the Baptist and Saints Edward and Edmund ('The Wilton Diptych') about 1395-9

Egg tempera on oak

57 x 29.2 cm.

The Wilton Diptych was painted as a portable altarpiece for the private devotion of King Richard II, who ruled England from 1377 to 1399. The diptych is thought to have been made in the last five years of Richard's reign, although its artist remains unknown. It is called The Wilton Diptych because it came from Wilton House in Wiltshire, the seat of the Earls of Pembroke.


NG: Painting of the Month

Canaletto and London

Westminster Bridge from the north on Lord Mayor's Day (1746)
Oil on canvas, 96 x 137,5 cm
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven


London: Seen Through an Arch of Westminster Bridge 1746-47
Oil on canvas, 57 x 95 cm
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London, Seen from an Arch of Westminster Bridge 1747
Oil on canvas, 118 x 238 cm
National Gallery, Prague


London: Northumberland House 1752
Oil on canvas, 84 x 137 cm
Private collection

Italian who showed London in a good light

A new show of Canaletto's [Giovanni Antonio Canal (1697-1768), better known as Canaletto]English paintings reveals the artist's fascination for a city in constant flux, writes Martin Gayford in The Telegraph

On June 3, 1747 an engraving was published in London. It showed, as a contemporary advertisement put it, "A Most beautiful view of the City of London, taken through one of the Centers of the Arches of the New Bridge at Westminster".

The painting on which the print was based is indeed a remarkable one. It puts you, the viewer, on the Thames in the mid-18th century.

'Canaletto in England: A Venetian Artist Abroad 1746-1755' is at Dulwich Picture Gallery, London SE21 (020 8693 5254), from Jan 24 until Apr 15

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