The artistic program of the Baptistery of San Giovanni in Dante’s liturgical imagination

Bibliographic Data

ID9817790
AuthorsAriela Algaze (Stanford University, California, USA, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume55
Issue2
Pages399-427
Publication date2021-08-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueForum Italicum A Journal of Italian Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0014-5858 • E-ISSN: 2168-989X
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/00145858211022577
OpenAlexW3176041125
LanguageEN
References cited30

This paper 1 re-examines the relationship between Dante’s Commedia and the Baptistery of San Giovanni from an art historical perspective. Drawing on –– and then departing from –– earlier work by Dante scholars who described figurative echoes between the Commedia and the Baptistery’s mosaic program, this article reconceptualizes the relationship between the two as not only figurative, but also liturgical. Using the texts of two extant medieval Florentine libri ordinales to reconstruct the liturgy of Holy Saturday, I document the ways in which the decorative mosaic imagery of the Baptistery is reflected in and reinforced by the multisensory performance of the baptismal rite. I argue further that Dante ekphrastically reimagines this rite in cantos 1–2 and 29–33 of Purgatorio. By exploring Dante’s liturgical imagination vis-à-vis the multivalent space of the Baptistery, this paper articulates and illuminates the profound interconnections that can exist between medieval art, architecture, liturgy, and poetry

Art · Art history · Extant taxon · Humanities · Linguistics · Literal and figurative language · Literature · Liturgy · Medieval Literature · Mosaic · Poetry · Rite · Theology · Visual arts · Byzantine Studies and History · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome · Philosophy · Renaissance and Early Modern Studies

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