Dante's Inferno sparks 'emotional exhibit' connecting students, faculty, alumni and the arts community

May 16, 2023 by Sean McNeely - A&S News

A group of artists and graduate students offered their interpretations of the “emotions” presented in the opening scene of one of the world’s most celebrated works of medieval literature — Dante’s Inferno.

The Inferno is the first part of Italian writer Dante Alighieri's epic poem The Divine Comedy, written between 1308 and 1321. It is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. The Inferno describes Dante's journey through Hell, guided by the ancient Roman/Latin poet Virgil.

Promoted by the Faculty of Arts & Science’s Department of Italian Studies, in partnership with the Italian Cultural Institute in Toronto, the exhibition “How Does it Feel? Dante’s Emotions Today” invited scholars, students and artists to create artistic representations of the seven main emotions displayed at the beginning of Dante’s Inferno I and II: fear, courage, hope, love, compassion, desire and joy.

Rumi Handen.
Rumi Handen felt her image of hikers on Pikes Peak captured the emotion “courage.” Photo: Diana Tyszko.

Under the supervision of Elisa Brilli, a professor with the department and the director of the Centre for Medieval Studies, a selection of creative works for each emotion were displayed at an in-person exhibition at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura (Italian Cultural Institute) in Toronto last month.

The exhibit accompanied a two-day international conference titled, “Emotions and Communities in Dante” that is part of the International Seminar on Critical Approaches to Dante (ISCAD).

In addition to the Department of Italian Studies, other sponsors of this initiative included: the Emilio Goggio Chair in Italian Studies; the University of St. Michael’s College; the Pontifical Institute for Mediaeval Studies; the University of Toronto Office of the Vice President International; and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

The exhibit also featured a virtual reality exhibit, created by Paolo Granata, an associate professor and program coordinator for the Book & Media Studies program at St. Michael’s College. Visitors were able to experience Dante’s conflicting emotions with an immersive rendering of the Inferno’s opening scenes, re-created from a 14th-15th century illuminated manuscript of The Divine Comedy.

Yellow wildflowers.
Annunziata Zevola felt her image of cliffside flowers in Italy represented “hope.” Photo: Annunziata Zevola.

Alessio Aletta, a fifth-year PhD candidate with the Department of Italian Studies, chose the emotion, “desire” for his contribution, creating a black and white comic strip drawing that he calls Off the Grid.

“When I think of desire, the first thing that comes to mind is the desire to escape,” says Aletta whose research includes studying literary geography, comics studies and the playwright, poet and novelist, Luigi Pirandello.

Aletta’s comic features an animal character going about their daily life — commuting, working and sleeping, and then the cycle is repeated. But the animal moves beyond this daily routine and steps into a totally blank space, free of repetition.

“It’s the same character going through everyday life. So it starts in bed and ends in bed, but there are some hints that it's not the same day,” he says. “It's not a particularly unhappy life per se, there is nothing particularly tragic going on. But that’s one of my deepest anxieties, that I end up doing the same thing over and over.”

An open book with a blue and beige image of a dessert and people in the middle of the page.
The event’s virtual reality imagery was based on a 14th-15th-century illuminated manuscript of The Divine Comedy. Photo: Diana Tyszko.

For Aletta, Dante’s writing is still relevant and an endless source of inspiration.

“If you look over Dante's ideas on religion, society and morals — many of which admittedly haven't aged well — you'll find at the core of his work is the whole human experience: suffering, passion, elation. Those things have stayed fundamentally the same in the last 700 years. So reading Dante, we still find our own emotions beautifully represented in his words.”

Rumi Handen, a first-year PhD student in Italian Studies, grew up in Los Angeles but also lived in Colorado where she took a photo last summer that she believes captures the emotion, “courage.”

The photo was taken at Pikes Peak, which sits at an elevation of 4,302 metres — or 14,115 feet which is the photo’s title — and is one of the most visited mountains in the world. The mountain’s summit can be attained by car, railway or on foot. Handen captured two hikers crossing the summit, with a third hiker looking out over the edge.

“We often use mountain climbing as a metaphor for overcoming obstacles,” says Handen whose research interests include Italian modernism, the 20th-century novel and migrant literature.

“These people who were hiking here were really brave. So was the person on the edge. I don't know the story of this person, but whatever it is, they are literally pushing themselves to the edge.

“And the thing with courage here is, with this mountain, there's the sense that they have done this amazing thing. But at the same time, while they are aware of this, they're also aware of how immense and large the world is and how small they are in comparison.”

A VI image of Virgil pointing at a moon
Meeting the ancient Roman poet, Virgil, was part of the exhibit’s virtual reality experience. VR image courtesy of Paolo Granata.

Like Aletta, Handen loves Dante’s timelessness and the fact that his writing from the early 1300s is still the subject of conferences and exhibitions.

“The poetics of his writing are just really beautiful,” says Handen. “And clearly, as the scholarship shows, people have spent hundreds of years studying even just one of Dante’s stories. A lot of the feelings that he expresses, whether it's courage or desire or fear, are all emotions that we continue to feel when we're reading his work.”

Annunziata Zevola, another first-year PhD student with the department, also found inspiration in nature as she submitted a photo to represent the emotion, “hope.”

The photo, titled Unbarren, shows flowers blooming along the side of a cliff in a park in Villa Gregoriana, not far from Rome.

How did this image spark a connection with Dante, aside from it being taken in Italy?

A VI image of Virgil pointing at three people above him
Virgil and the three blessed women — Virgin Mary, St. Lucia and Beatrice. VR image courtesy of Paolo Granata.

“One thing that got me thinking is Dante’s use of the image of a blossoming flower to signify courage,” says Zevola. “To me, the most immediate association that comes to mind with flowers is, in fact, hope; the fact that my pic portrays not a solitary bud, but a whole group blossoming, also made me think of the collective, not individual value of hope in Dante’s conception.”

She is still moved by the last verse of the Inferno: "E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle" which translates to "Thence we came forth to behold the stars."

“It’s when Dante has finally come out of Hell and I think it captures his sense of liberation,” says Zevola. “Incidentally it’s also a message of hope.”

Giulia Gaimari, a postdoctoral fellow with the Department of Italian Studies, and one of the exhibit’s organizers, felt all of the hours organizing, preparing and planning quickly paid off at the exhibit’s opening.

A VI image of a wolf pack howling in the night
Dante’s journey includes seeing “the three beasts.” VR image courtesy of Paolo Granata.

“What I enjoyed the most that evening was seeing the reactions of people around me, expressing awe and curiosity about our work and that of the artists involved,” she says. “We were actively engaging a beautifully diverse community in a rich intellectual, creative and emotional exchange.”

Veronica Manson, the director of the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, was also thrilled with the submissions and the exhibition, feeling it reflected a new and original way of bringing Dante to the present.

“To me this exhibition stressed how modern Dante is,” says Manson. “When Dante talks about emotions, of course, he uses beautiful ancient Italian, but he speaks to you and me, because those are universal concepts and universal feelings that still resonate today.”