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To: texasbluebell
Does anyone know if this portrayal is based upon Dante's Inferno? And are any other figures in the painting specific individuals?
83 posted on 08/20/2002 8:43:43 PM PDT by foreshadowed at waco
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To: foreshadowed at waco
Does anyone know if this portrayal is based upon Dante's Inferno?

Yes, it is. Here is an excerpt:

And in Italy the radicals are already targeting their next cultural icon for destruction: the works of Dante Alighieri, Italy's national poet. In demanding that Giovanni da Modena's fresco be pulverized, the Unione blamed the perceived anti-Islamic sentiment of modern Italians on Dante, who in the Middle Ages placed Mohammed in the ninth circle of hell in the 28th Canto of his masterpiece, "The Inferno." While it is true that the fretted-over fresco was based on this 14th-century work, the would-be vandals neglect to mention that both Dante and Giovanni damned plenty of their fellow Catholics in their depictions of hell, including a smattering of priests, a pope or two, and even a canonized saint. As far as eternal perdition was concerned, these medireview artists were equal opportunity judges. Despite this fact, the Unione demands that Dante not be taught in many Italian schools.

86 posted on 08/20/2002 9:27:02 PM PDT by ELS
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