Dante Alighieri At the Bargello Museum
Dante Aligheri is without doubt one of the illustrious sons of Florence, for his writings (among which “Divina Commedia” where he recounts in verses the journey from Hell, Purgatory and Paradise and “Vita Nuova” where he sings his love for Beatrice) that created the foundation of the Italian language and for his life, a pattern of political passion.dante As in any family, between mother Florence and its famous son there were also forgettable moments, one of the most dramatic ones taking place in 1302, the year when Dante was condemned to perpetual exile and his house was burned to the ground because of the political disputes of which he was a protagonist; from then on the great poet will wander in exile until 1321 and he will end his earthly life at Ravenna, where he is still buried now. .
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As in any family, between mother Florence and its famous son there were also forgettable moments, one of the most dramatic ones taking place in 1302, the year when Dante was condemned to perpetual exile and his house was burned to the ground because of the political disputes of which he was a protagonist; from then on the great poet will wander in exile until 1321 and he will end his earthly life at Ravenna, where he is still buried now. After Dante’s death, Florence will remember him in any kind of public celebrations, almost trying to make up for the mistakes made during their confrontations. Enough to mention, readings of “Divina Commedia” organized by Boccaccio in 1373, in the Santo Stefano in Badia church, the fifteenth century image of Dante placed on Florence’s Cathedral, the nineteenth century marble statues placed in the Uffizi and Piazza Santa Croce, the plaques spread throughout the city in memory of the characters sung in the “Commedia”, the creation of the Italian Dante Society, born in Florence in 1888 and still present at the Palagio dell’Arte of Lana next to Orsanmichele, and even the reconstruction of his destroyed house. Overall, stands out as a repeated attempt but never successful to bring back the remains of Dante from Ravenna to Florence, reason for which the monument dedicated to him inside the Santa Croce church is only a cenotaph, a tomb deprived by the body it celebrates. In the first book dedicated to the history of modern age artists, “Vite” by Giorgio Vasari, it can be read that in the chapel of Palazzo Pretorio, (today Bargello), there was a portrait of Dante by Giotto, invisible given the fact that the building has been turned into a prison and repainted white. Italians weren’t the first ones that have tried to search for the traces of the portrait, but foreign scholars from the nineteenth century: Seymour Kirkup, attorney of Giovanni Aubrey Bezzi and the American Dante scholar Enrico Wilde; but their proposal wasn’t heard out, considered inappropriate because it was presented by foreigners. The idea was brought to attention again and proposed on June 11, 1839 by the Marquis Paolo Feroni, painter and patriot, together with famous sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini and Giovanni Aubrey Bezzi who were interested to bring back to light Dante’s fresco. This time the Lorraine government replied positively. Painter Antonio Marini thus started working and on July 20, 1840 he found the portrait of Dante: this led to the “resurrection” of the building that still remained a prison until 1857 and that because of the discovery has been restored and transformed into a museum dedicated to sculpture and decorative arts, on the wake of what was happening in Paris with the Cluny Museum and in London with the South Kensington Museum (today known as Victoria and Albert Museum). In retrospect, Bargello seems emblematic, as a sort of reflection of the ambiguous love and hate relationship between Florence and Dante: if the fresco from the Maddalena Chapel celebrates his features for eternity, at the same time the Donatello Saloon, ancient hall of the Podestà audience and scene of the death sentence and perpetual exile of the great poet, remembers that tragic year of 1302 that remains as an unforgettable act of shame in the memory of the city.
Come in tutte le famiglie, però, tra la madre Firenze e il celebre figlio vi sono stati momenti da dimenticare, il più drammatico dei quali fu nel 1302, anno in cui Dante fu condannato all’esilio perpetuo e la sua casa venne rasa al suolo in seguito alle vicende politiche di cui era stato protagonista; da allora il Sommo Poeta sarà un esule errante e terminerà nel 1321 la sua vita terrena a Ravenna, luogo in cui è sepolto ancora oggi. Dopo la morte di Dante, Firenze si prodigherà in ogni genere di pubblica celebrazione della sua figura, quasi cercando di riparare gli errori commessi nei suoi confronti. Basti ricordare, per esempio, le pubbliche letture della “Divina Commedia” organizzate da Boccaccio, nel 1373, presso la chiesa di Santo Stefano in Badia, l’immagine quattrocentesca di Dante collocata nel duomo di Firenze, le ottocentesche statue marmoree del loggiato degli Uffizi e di Piazza Santa Croce, le targhe sparse per il centro cittadino a memoria di fatti e personaggi cantati nella “Commedia”, la creazione della Società Dantesca Italiana, nata a Firenze nel 1888 e ancora oggi presente nel Palagio dell’Arte della Lana accanto a Orsanmichele, e, addirittura, la ricostruzione della sua casa già demolita. Su tutte, però, campeggia il tentativo, reiterato nei secoli e mai coronato da successo, di riportare le spoglie di Dante da Ravenna a Firenze, ragion per cui il monumento a lui dedicato nella Chiesa di Santa Croce è solo un cenotafio, cioè una tomba priva del corpo della persona che celebra. Nel primo libro dedicato alla storia degli artisti nell’età moderna, le “Vite” di Giorgio Vasari, si legge che, nella cappella del Palazzo Pretorio, (oggi Bargello), esisteva un ritratto di Dante affrescato da Giotto, già allora invisibile dato che l’edificio era stato trasformato in una prigione dalle mura imbiancate. Non furono degli italiani coloro che per primi provarono a cercare le tracce dell’affresco, ma alcuni studiosi stranieri nel XIX secolo: Seymour Kirkup, l’avvocato Giovanni Aubrey Bezzi e il dantista americano Enrico Wilde; ma la proposta non venne accolta in quanto non ritenuto opportuno il fatto che a presentarla fossero stranieri. L’idea fu riproposta l’11 giugno 1839 dal marchese Paolo Feroni, pittore e patriota, insieme al celebre scultore Lorenzo Bartolini e Giovanni Aubrey Bezzi che si interessava nuovamente all’impresa.
