Dan Brown Reviving Interest In Dante
Bitch all you want about the literary un-quality of Dan Brown’s new novel, “Inferno.” Meanwhile, it’s doing wonders for Dante and the artists who have illustrated him. For instance, the thriller writer’s gift to tourism in Florence is bringing renewed interest in artists such as Domenico di Michelino, whose “Dante Illuminating Florence with His Poem,” from the city’s cathedral, is illustrated above.
In this picture, which dates from around 1465, the medieval poet Dante Alighieri stands, a red-robed colossus, revealing his poem “The Divine Comedy” to the city of Florence which he dwarfs. The title of Brown’s new novel and its “symbological” codes refer to the first of three books that constitute “The Divine Comedy”: Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso.
