Dantedì 2023. All the appointments in Florence
Exhibitions and conferences in the calendar on March 25, the national day dedicated to Dante
On March 25, the date that scholars recognize as the beginning of the Divine Comedy's journey into the afterlife, Dante's genius is celebrated throughout Italy and the world.
Before discovering the initiatives planned in the city for this very important anniversary, let's discover together the 10 places of Dante in Florence, as Florence was at the time of Dante and who are the descendants of the Supreme Poet!
Dante's place par excellence, March 25 hosts The Traces of the Poet in the History of the Palace, a double thematic guided tour (scheduled at 3 and 5 p.m., free for all visitors with an entrance ticket) in the times and places of Alighieri, tracing Dante's legacy in the history of the ancient Palazzo del Podestà. For it was here, in the Sala dell'Udienza (now the Salone di Donatello) that, on March 10, 1302, the supreme poet was condemned to exile and death if he ever returned to Florence; in the adjoining Cappella del Podestà, only a few years later (between 1333 and 1337), Giotto, with his school, set his last pictorial masterpiece, and portrayed Dante's face for the first time, including him among the ranks of the elect in Paradise. It was precisely around this portrait, the first known effigy of the father of the Italian language, that the memory-building process was thus outlined that would allow Florence to reappropriate the work and figure of Dante and that would lead to the Bargello becoming the first national museum of united Italy in 1865.
Museo Nazionale del Bargello Giotto Ritratto di Dante Alighieri Courtesy Musei del BargelloPALAZZO DAVANZATI MUSEUM
Rare testimony of a 14th-century tower house, at 2:15 p.m. and 4. 15 visitors (in possession of the entrance ticket) can participate free of charge in La Fama di Dante nei Trionfi dello Scheggia, a visit that-after a brief introduction to the figure of Dante and the context of the industrious late 13th-century Florence that hosted him-accompanies the public to the Sala delle Impannate, where it is possible to observe in detail the Trionfi dello Scheggia, in which Giovanni di ser Giovanni known as Lo Scheggia, Masaccio's brother, portrays, more than a century after his death, the face of the Supreme Poet, testimony to his fortune and the influence he had on posterity.
Also at the Palazzo Davanzati Museum (free admission subject to availability) at 4 p.m. is Comu Tristainu vai nella isola per cumbactiri locu. Stories of Tristan between Sicily and Tuscany in the Late Fourteenth Century, a meeting during which Francesco Carapezza, professor of Romance philology and linguistics at the University of Palermo, introduced by Bargello Museums director Paola D'Agostino, delves into the history of the Guicciardini blankets, one preserved in Florence at Palazzo Davanzati and the other at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, explaining how they constitute a precious testimony to the fortunes of Tristan stories in Italy in the late Middle Ages. From Tuscany and probably Florence, in fact, comes the literary source from which the twenty-two scenes embroidered on the two blankets, produced in Sicily in the late fourteenth century and perhaps intended for two "parallel beds" in the Guicciardini household, were taken.
Museo di Palazzo Davanzati, Il Trionfo della Fama Particolare con ritratto di Dante Giovanni di ser Giovanni detto Lo Scheggia Courtesy Musei del BargelloMARTELLI HOUSE MUSEUM
At the Martelli House Museum where, during the guided tours scheduled at 9 a.m., 10 a.m., 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. (free admission), visitors can look up and appreciate In Heaven with Dante, an in-depth study that - inside the Hall of Poets - directs the eye to Tommaso Gherardini's 18th-century frescoes that feature Alighieri portrayed alongside Boccaccio and Petrarch.
Museo di Casa Martelli, Sala dei poeti Affreschi di Tommaso Gherardini Courtesy Musei del BargelloDANTE'S HOUSE MUSEUM
On Saturday, March 25, on the occasion of Dante 2023, the day dedicated to Dante's celebrations, Dante's House Museum is open to the public from 1 to 6 p.m. with reduced admission at €5 for everyone to discover the latest museum news.
Casa di Dante On the day dedicated to the Supreme Poet, an itinerary is proposed that once again foregrounds the unbreakable bond between Dante and Santa Croce, not only because of the presence of the Cenotaph but also because of the influence that the Comedy has exerted on the basilica's art and works.To participate in the visit, reservations are required at www.santacroceopera.it