The Arts in the time of the exile
From 6th March to 4th July 2021, “The Arts in the time of the exile” will be hosted in the church of San Romualdo.
An exhibition of masterpieces and testimonies precisely adhering to the theme and emblematic of the stages of Dante’s exile
The monastic church of San Romualdo, adjacent to the Classense Library, in the historic heart of Ravenna, will host the great exhibition dedicated to Dante, entitled “The Arts in the time of the exile”, the second major event in the exibition”Dante. The eyes and the mind “, promoted by the Municipality of Ravenna – Department of Culture, from the Mar – Museum of Art of the city of Ravenna and the Uffizi, curated by Massimo Medica.
By curatorial choice, the exhibition will bring together only precious and exceptional testimonies precisely adhering to the theme, truly emblematic of the stages of Dante’s exile. The exhibition proposes what the Supreme Poet had the opportunity to admire in his long wanderings around Italy, works whose echoes influenced his Comedy.
The exhibition itinerary will then be opened by the powerful gilded bronze sculpture depicting Boniface VIII, the one who condemned the Poet to exile. Also on display is the cast of the portrait of Boniface himself, made by Arnolfo di Cambio, now in the Vatican Palaces. The environment of origin and training of the Poet, Florence, is documented in the exhibition by unmissable works by Cimabue and Giotto, dated to the period of Dante’s stay in Florence and which, in all likelihood, he was able to admire.
The period of exile, which made the poet o leave Rome and move to various cities including Arezzo, Verona, Padua, Bologna, Lucca, Pisa and finally Ravenna, also corresponded to a moment of profound changes and novelties in the arts which the exhibition will document through paintings, sculptures, illuminated manuscripts and goldsmiths.
Dante arrived in Ravenna around 1319, while Giovanni and Giuliano da Rimini were working in the city, the latter called to decorate the chapel a cornu epistulae of the church of San Domenico, also followed by Pietro da Rimini, of which the city still retains several testimonials. The exhibition reserves ample space for the masterpieces of these two artists in its concluding section, interspersed with testimonies related to the Venetian figurative culture, to document the last diplomatic undertaking carried out by the Poet in the Serenissima.