This article reconsiders the so-called portrait of Dante in the frescoed Paradise in the Magdalen Chapel of the Palazzo del Podestà in Florence, and accepts it as an effigy of the poet, for both its affinities with the other portrait in the Palazzo dei Giudici e Notai and the attributes (a book and an apple branch) held by the figure, unique among the figures in this Paradise. According to the author, the book alludes to the Divine Comedy, while the branch would be justified by the figurative equivalent of the Dantesque metaphor of the apple tree, which symbolizes redemption in Canto XXXII of Purgatory. This interpretation, presupposing the increasing prevalence of early commentaries on the Commedia in Florence, would suggest the fresco was painted shortly before 1337, the concluding date of the cycle conceived by Giotto and continued by workshops stylistically close to Stefano Fiorentino and Maso di Banco. This would thus rule out recent chronologies that have instead dated the frescoes to around 1322 or between 1326 and 1327.
Dante, non-Dante. Osservazioni sul presunto ritratto giottesco della cappella del Podestà a Firenze
NERI, Enrica
2014
Abstract
This article reconsiders the so-called portrait of Dante in the frescoed Paradise in the Magdalen Chapel of the Palazzo del Podestà in Florence, and accepts it as an effigy of the poet, for both its affinities with the other portrait in the Palazzo dei Giudici e Notai and the attributes (a book and an apple branch) held by the figure, unique among the figures in this Paradise. According to the author, the book alludes to the Divine Comedy, while the branch would be justified by the figurative equivalent of the Dantesque metaphor of the apple tree, which symbolizes redemption in Canto XXXII of Purgatory. This interpretation, presupposing the increasing prevalence of early commentaries on the Commedia in Florence, would suggest the fresco was painted shortly before 1337, the concluding date of the cycle conceived by Giotto and continued by workshops stylistically close to Stefano Fiorentino and Maso di Banco. This would thus rule out recent chronologies that have instead dated the frescoes to around 1322 or between 1326 and 1327.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
