Dante and his Divine Comedy in popular culture

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Dante Alighieri and his masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, have been a source of inspiration for countless artists for almost seven centuries. As one of the most well known and greatest artistic works in the Western tradition, its influence on culture cannot be overestimated. Some examples are listed below:

Dante of Erminio Blotta, at Bd. Oroño, Rosario
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Dante of Erminio Blotta, at Bd. Oroño, Rosario

Contents

[edit] Literature

  • Author L. Frank Baum utilized its structure as an inspiration for Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (1908).
  • Authors Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle wrote a modern sequel, Inferno (published in 1978), in which a book author dies during a fan convention and finds himself in Hell. He escapes with the aid of various characters he meets along the way (including Benito Mussolini and Billy the Kid).
  • Author Nick Tosches's In The Hand of Dante (2002) weaves a contemporary tale about the finding of an original manuscript of the Divine Comedy with an imagined account of Dante's years composing the work; see official website.
  • The Dante Club is a 2003 novel by Matthew Pearl which tells the story of various American poets translating The Divine Comedy in post-civil war Boston. At the same time, a killer takes inspiration from the punishments in Dante's Inferno.
  • Author Mark E. Rogers used the structure of Dante's hell in his 1998 comedic novel Samurai Cat Goes to Hell. Rogers' take on the Inferno is a violent, pun-laden, parodical conclusion to his series of Samurai Cat books.
  • Author Monique Wittig's Virgile, Non (published in English as Across the Acheron) is a lesbian–feminist retelling of the Divine Comedy set in the utopia/dystopia of second-wave feminism.
  • Neil Gaiman's Sandman comic series features a heavily Dante-inspired Hell, including the woods of Suicide, the Malebolge, and the City of Dis.
  • DC/Vertigo comics's Lucifer, based on characters from Neil Gaiman's Sandman, featuring aspects of a Dante-inspired Hell and Heaven, particularly the Primum Mobile.
  • DC/Vertigo comics's Kid Eternity, in which Kid and his companion Jerry Sullivan travel to a Dante-inspired Hell to free a partner of Kid's. The structure of the comic also draws features from Dante's Inferno.
  • Geoff Ryman's The Child Garden, set in a Socialist future London, deals with, in part, an opera adaptation of the Comedy which uses holography.
  • Betty Ford's Healing and Hope, which uses Dante's structure as an analogy for the stages of alcoholism.
  • T. S. Eliot uses extracts from the Inferno as both epigram and preface to The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.
  • Pope Benedict XVI has said that part of his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, was inspired by Canto XXXIII of "Paradise".2 Paragraph 39 of the encyclical says "Love is the light—and in the end, the only light—that can always illuminate a world grown dim...".
  • Karl Marx uses a paraphrase of Purgatory 5:13 as a motto for Das Kapital: Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti ("follow your own road, and let the people talk").
  • Jeff Long's The Descent is based on Dante's work, and makes both blatant and implied references to it.
  • Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho begins with the words “Abandon all hope ye who enter here”.
  • Gloria Naylor’s Linden Hills uses Dante’s Inferno as a model for the trek made by two young black poets who spend the days before Christmas doing odd jobs in an affluent African American community. The young men soon discover the price paid by the inhabitants of Linden Hills for pursuing the American dream.
  • The seven novels in Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series depict Heaven and Hell as having structures closely based on those in the Divine Comedy. (Purgatory does not imitate Dante's structure, however, because the Incarnations' universe follows different theological rules.)
  • Hannibal by Thomas Harris, makes several references to Dante and the Inferno.
  • Dialogues II: Bardo, author Stephen Spignesi's sequel to his novel Dialogues, is a modern retelling of The Divine Comedy. The main character Tory makes a journey across America, from Mystic, Connecticut, to Paradise Valley, Arizona, encountering people along the way who parallel characters from Dante's poem.
  • California surfers Sandow Birk and Marcus Sanders made a freely adapted version of the Divine Comedy (2004–2005), whose illustrations, variations on the original, and language place it clearly within a modern American landscape. A review in the San Francisco Chronicle praises the punch and sensibility of its re-imaginings (for example "St. Peter as a paunchy rent-a-cop, Dante's beloved Beatrice as an earthy chola...St. Thomas Aquinas has become a street preacher"[1]).
  • Ty Templeton parodied Dante in his Stig's Inferno.

[edit] Music

  • Franz Liszt's Symphony to Dante's Divina Commedia (completed 1856) has two movements: "Inferno" and "Purgatorio". A concluding "Magnificat" is included at the end of the "Purgatorio" movement and replaces the planned third movement which was to be called "Paradiso" (Liszt was dissuaded by Wagner on his original plan). Liszt also composed a Dante Sonata (started 1837, completed 1849).
  • An Irish band called The Divine Comedy, centered on Neil Hannon, also exists. Their music style has influences of classic poetry in general.
  • Paul Simon may have used the Divine Comedy for the inspiration of his song "You Can Call Me Al" in 1986.
  • Actress/Supermodel Milla Jovovich, as Milla, released her debut album under the name The Divine Comedy. The Divine Comedy consists of a collection of acoustic pop and folk songs drawn from Jovovich's Slavic background.
  • Italian progressive rock band Metamorfosi has released two concept albums based on the Divine Comedy, Inferno (in 1972) and the more recent follow on Paradiso.
  • Robert W. Smith's (ASCAP) The Divine Comedy is a four-movement symphony for wind ensemble which depicts four stages of Dante's journey in a tone poem-like symphonic structure. The movements are entitled "The Inferno," "Purgatorio," "The Ascension" (though it is not one of the books of the actual work by Dante, the composer felt it appropriate to separate Dante's experiences in Eden from his climb up Purgatory Mountain), and lastly "Paradiso."
  • Heavy metal / power metal band Iced Earth paid tribute to the poem with an epic song entitled "Dante's Inferno". Clocking in at 16 minutes and 29 seconds, and featuring long instrumental sections, abrupt tempo changes, and a pseudo-Gregorian chant choir, the song is found on the 1995 album Burnt Offerings. The song also appears on the 2 disc limited edition version of their Days of Purgatory album, in a very slightly modified fashion. It is also performed live on their Alive in Athens double live CD.
  • Punk singer Mike Watt's third solo album, The Secondman's Middle Stand (Columbia Records, 2004), is a concept album (he likes to call it a "punk opera") that derives its structure from The Divine Comedy, with three sections of three songs each. He tells his story of a prolonged illness he suffered a few years earlier, each section denoted to be "Hell" (a metaphor for Watt's illness), "Purgatory" (his recuperation), and "Paradise" (celebrating his healing).
  • F.M. Einheit of Einstürzende Neubauten and Andreas Ammer collaborated on an experimental recording called Radio Inferno that adapts The Divine Comedy in the format of a radio play.
  • Industrial band Skinny Puppy used an illustration found in the Inferno as the cover to their single "Dig It".
  • Progressive metal band Symphony X also pays tribute to the poem with an epic song entitled "The Divine Wings of Tragedy", although it contains some passages of famous classical music, such as The Planets by Gustav Holst.
  • Thrash metal band Sepultura's new album is based entirely on The Divine Comedy. Entitled Dante XXI, it was released on March 14, 2006
  • Zao refer to the Divine Comedy on their 1999 album Liberate te ex Inferis, covering the first five circles of the Inferno.
  • Thom Yorke of the band Radiohead has also referenced Dante's Inferno as a recurring source of inspiration for his music and many references to the poem can be found in the band's lyrics. Pyramid Song from the album Amnesiac is loaded with Inferno references.
  • Tangerine Dream has released albums setting the first two parts of The Divine Comedy to music: Inferno is a recording of a live performance at the St Marien zu Bernau Cathedral in 2001, and Purgatorio is a studio album from 2004. Both feature an unusual mix of female vocals and their trademark electronics. The conclusion of the trilogy, Paradise, is to be released in 2005. A DVD was released of the 1911 film by Giuseppe de Liguoro set to the album Inferno in 2005 in the United Kingdom. [2]
  • The Tea Party's 2004 release of The Seven Circles is said to be inspired, in part, by Dante's work, allusions to which can be seen in lyrics within some of the tracks.
  • Folk singer Loreena McKennitt's song "Dante's Prayer", the final track on her 1997 album The Book of Secrets, is based on Dante's work.
  • Grunge band Nirvana featured artwork based on 'Inferno' on their debut album Bleach.
  • Canadian post-rock group As The Poets Affirm took their name from a passage in Dante's Inferno.
  • Asaki's first album, Shinkyoku, is also the name of Divine Comedy in Japanese Kanji.
  • Acoustic-rock band Your Forgotten Love has a song entitled "The Dark Wood of Error", the name of the first canto of the 'Inferno'. The lyrics to the song are arranged from lines in that canto.
  • The Bright River is a hip-hop retelling of Dante's Inferno by a traditional storyteller, Tim Barsky, with a live soundtrack. performed by some of the best hip-hop and klezmer musicians in the Bay Area. A dizzying theatrical journey through a world spinning helplessly out of control, the show sends audiences on a mass-transit tour of the Afterlife. see http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/timbarskyee
  • In Weezer's latest album "Make Believe" released May 10, 2005, there is hidden text in the pictures. The text reads "Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita".
  • The song "Roll Right" on the album Evil Empire by Rage against the machine contains the refrain 'Send 'em to tha seventh level!' referencing the seventh circle (or level) of Hell, where the violent are held.
  • Bad Religion, an influential hardcore punk/punk rock band from Southern California, took inspiration from Dante's Hell for the back of the cover of their first album How Could Hell Be Any Worse?
  • Cowboy Mouth describes the Superdome during and after Hurricane Katrina as "Dante's Inferno" in the song "Home" on their latest album, Voodoo Shoppe

[edit] Sculpture

  • The Gates of Hell sculptural group by Auguste Rodin. Dante is the figure sitting at the top of the gate contemplating the horrors of hell. This figure was later isolated and became Rodin's thinker.
  • The Seven Deadly Sins are interactive welded steel sculptures each depicting one of the Seven Deadly Sins. They are part of the collection of work titled Inspired By Dante by Jennifer Strange

[edit] Visual arts

  • Sandro Botticelli made the most famous set of illustrations during the Renaissance.
  • John Flaxman's illustrations were influential across Europe in the Eighteenth century because of their radically minimalist style.
  • Eugene Delacroix made his name with The Barque of Dante. depicting Dante and Virgil crossing the styx.
  • Before his death in 1827, William Blake, the English poet and painter, planned and executed several watercolour illustrations to the Divine Comedy. Though he did not finish the series before his death, they remain a highly powerful visual interpretation of the poem.
  • Gustave Doré made the most famous illustrations in the 19th century.
  • Franz von Bayros, mainly known for his erotic drawings, illustrated a 1921 edition.
  • Jimbo in Purgatory by Gary Panter, an adaptation of Dante’s Purgatorio, melded with Boccaccio’s Decameron, a bit of the Canterbury Tales, Milton and John Dryden alongside pop culture references. [3][4]
  • Contemporary artist Jennifer Strange offers dynamic charcoal drawings inspired by the Inferno and Purgatory in the Commedia Inspired by Dante.
  • Wayne Barlowe's book, Barlowe's Inferno, containing paintings of Hell and an accompanying narrative, is partially inspired by Dante's Inferno.
  • Purgatorio - Surrealist Illustrations based on Doré's engravings by Shlomo Felberbaum,
  • Mickey's Inferno is a comic-book adaptation written by Guido Martina and drawn by Angelo Bioletto featuring classic Disney characters including Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Donald Duck published by the then-Italian Disney comic book licensee Mondadori in the monthly Topolino from Oct. 1949 to March 1950. An English-language version appeared in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #666 [March 2006].

[edit] Performing arts (film & theater)

  • The 1911 silent film L'Inferno, directed by Giuseppe de Liguoro, starring Salvatore Papa and released on DVD in 2004, with a soundtrack by Tangerine Dream; see IMDb reference; Silent era.com. A review of this film can be read here.
  • The 1935 motion picture Dante's Inferno directed by Harry Lachman, written by Philip Klein and starring Spencer Tracy is about a fairground attraction based on the Inferno.
  • The interpretation of hell in the novel and 1998 film What Dreams May Come is heavily inspired by Dante's Inferno.
  • 1995 motion picture Se7en (also known as Seven) a film directed by David Fincher. The story is about two detectives, one new to the district and one about to retire, investigating a series of ritualistic murders inspired by the seven deadly sins. This film makes many references to Dante's Divine Comedy (text taken from wikpedia article about the Seven motion picture).
  • The 2005 BBC drama series Messiah IV: The Harrowing focuses on a serial killer who takes inspiration from the Inferno to punish his or her victims.
  • Dante's Inferno (2007) - Based on Sandow Birk's contemporary drawings of the Divine Comedy, this feature film version uses Toy Theater puppetry made up of paper puppets and sets. A darkly comedic update of the original, the film sets Dante’s tour of the underworld against a modern and familiar urban backdrop.
  • Jean-Luc Godard's 2004 film Notre musique is structured in three parts, Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise respectively, alluding to the Divine Comedy.
  • The 1979 Disney feature film The Black Hole contained a reference to Dante's Inferno. Ernest Borgnine's character, Harry Booth, compared the black hole phenomenon to a scene "right out of Dante's Inferno."
  • Stan Brakhage created in 1987 a six minute hand-painted film, The Dante Quartet, that is inspired by the Divine Comedy.
  • Peter Greenaway adapted Cantos I to VIII for BBC Two as A TV Dante (1987-1990).
  • Fullmetal Alchemist used the idea of the Seven Deadly Sins, incorporating them as demonic homunculus; the character that controls them borrows the name "Dante"(2001-Present). In addition, the "Alchemist's Gate" in the anime is modelled after Rodin's sculpture of the Gates of Hell.
  • Angel (TV series) A reference to the book and the nine circles of hell in the Season 3 Episode 'A New World'.
  • In the 2003 film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Captain Jack Sparrow states that Captain Barbossa and his crew will suffer horrible fates because "The deepest circle of hell is reserved for betrayers and mutineers."
  • The movie Clerks is said to be loosely based upon the 9 levels of hell with 9 sections of the movie and the main character's name Dante.
  • The movie Hannibal (1999), based on the book by Thomas Harris, makes several references to Dante and the Inferno.
  • Dante's "Inferno" is currently being produced as part of a trilogy which is to include "Purgatorio" and "Paradiso" [5] (See http://www.masterfilmsproductions.com/)
  • The movie The Core featured a direct reference to the Inferno, as the ship used to tunnel to the Earth's core was named Virgil, followed by a direct quotation from the Inferno.
  • The 1995 movie "Seven", starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, features a murderer who uses the plan of Dante's Inferno and the seven deadly sins for his choosing of a victim.

[edit] Digital arts & computer games

  • In the Footsteps of Dante is a Neverwinter Nights module which combines concepts, setting, characters, and plot events from Inferno with a continuation to the storyline of Planescape: Torment.
  • Project Dante, of the Polish artist Dariusz Nowak-Nova, is an example of how the Internet and new technologies can contribute to the formation of various approaches to literature, and a new way to conceive the book.
  • Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, a video game in the Devil May Cry series, very loosely based on the Divine Comedy by the use of allusions, including the game's protagonist Dante, and other characters like Vergil and Cerberus. Many of the enemies are named after the Seven Deadly Sins, such as "Hell Pride or "Hell Lust"
  • Doom, a video game where the third episode takes place in Hell, in such places as Limbo and Dis.
  • Tamashii no Mon, translated as 'Gate of Souls' is a computer game developed by Koei and released on the PC98 computer system in 1994 and was never released outside of Japan. It is an Action Adventure game that closely follows Dante's journey through Inferno.
  • Final Fantasy IV, which features four Elemental Lords named Rubicante, Scarmiglione, Barbariccia, and Cagnazzo, after members of the Malebranche. A mid-game boss, Calcabrina, also has the name of a Malebranche demon.
  • Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow which feature spear-wielding flying demons named after the Malebranche.
  • Before it's cancellation, The Lost was an adventure horror game in which a protagonist Amanda ventured into Hell to rescue her daughter, Beatrice. The levels were said to be a modern reimaging of the circles of Hell as presented in the Inferno.
  • Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror contains a monologue where Gabe Logan threatens to send a traitor the the lowest rings of hell, according to Dante, where he will be "frozen to his neck in ice and shit on by demons".

[edit] Misc

  • Tangerine Dream composed three complete albums that are musical adaptations of The Divine Comedy. Two of them, Inferno and Purgatorio have been released. Paradiso is due to be released in 2007. The compositions on these recordings use vocals extensively (in various languages) which is unusual for the band.
  • Iced Earth, a heavy metal band whose final track on their album Burnt Offerings, titled "Dante's Inferno", is based on Dante's journey through Hell.
  • Asteroid 2999 Dante, named after the poet
  • Miguel Asin Y Palacios' "Islam and the Divine Comedy".
  • For potential allusions to Dante in Bob Dylan's oeuvre, see "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" ("I saw a black branch with blood that kept dripping . . .", cf. Inferno XIII) and "Tangled Up in Blue" ("then she opened up a book of poems and handed it to me, written by an Italian poet from the thirteenth century . . .").
  • The fourth Uncanny X-men Annual, entitled "Nightcrawler's Inferno", chronicles the descent of Dr. Strange and the X-men into a facsimile of Hell based on Dante's Inferno.
  • The role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons named some levels of the Nine Hells after locations in Dante's Inferno. The game also borrowed the name "malebranche" for one diabolical race, although the original write-up mistranslated that word as "evil horn".

[edit] Other Resources

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