Dante Alighieri - Florence, Tuscany, Italy
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neoc1
N 43° 46.101 E 011° 15.334
32T E 681542 N 4848617
A statue of the poet Dante Alighieri is one of 28 statues of located along the colonnade of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.
Waymark Code: WMV2YF
Location: Toscana, Italy
Date Posted: 02/14/2017
Views: 5
A life size marble statue of the Florentine poet Dante Alighieri was created by Emilio Demi and placed in a niche in the colonnade of the Uffizi Gallery. The statues were added to the empty niches, originally created by Giorgio Vasari and were funded by a public subscription program that began in 1834.
Dante is depicted standing wearing a collared shirt under a cloak which is wrapped over his shoulders. He has his right hand on his chest and his left hand by his side holding lyre which is a metaphorical symbol representing the work of a poet. A laurel wreath in placed on his head, a symbol of his accomplishments as a poet.
The plinth of the statue is inscribed: DANTE ALLIGHIERI. The Uffizi Gallery is aware of the misspelling of Dante's name and states in their website: "P.S. if you spot the odd difference between the spelling of the names engraved on the statues and how we spell them now, it was the sculptors who got it wrong."
Dante Alighieri was born in the City of Florence in Republic of Florence about 1265. As a young man he he studied Tuscan poetry and the Provençal poetry of the troubadours, such as Arnaut Daniel, and the Latin writers of classical antiquity, including Cicero, Ovid and Virgil.
Dante is best known for writing the epic poem The Divine Comedy between 1308 and 1320. The poem is considered to be one of the greatest works in world literature. It is divided into three parts: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso. It's imaginative Medieval world view of the afterlife has had a profound influence to this day.
Other works by Dante include:
Convivio (1304 and 1307)
Eclogues (1319 -1320)
De Monarchia (1312 - 1313) - banned by the church in 1585.
Le Rime (1296)
La Vita Nuova (1295)
De vulgari eloquentia (1302 - 1305)
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