Friday, October 24, 2014

Florence Baptistry

Something that I think is really interesting is that this mosaic is from St. John's Baptistry in Florence. From what I gathered, the baptistry was finished in 1128. This means that if this mosaic was original, then it would have probably been seen by Dante, possibly giving him some inspiration for Satan in the Inferno. Another interesting thing that I'd like to note here is that this baptistry also houses the Gates of Paradise by Lorenzo Ghiberti. This is what Rodin based his Gates of Hell off of. This means that there is a possible two big notable works of art/literature based off of this one baptistry in Florence.
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1 comment:

Sri Korrapati said...

Wait, this was painted BEFORE the Inferno? I would be completely shocked if Dante DIDN'T get the inspiration for his Satan through this picture. I mean, it has everything but the color really. You even have the sinners in Satan's mouths facing as Dante described. Plus, I mean, Florence and Italy and such. It would make sense. What I find interesting that I feel Dante didn't include would be the serpents in this painting. That obviously refers to the forbidden fruit narrative. Also, the two other sinners in Satan's hands were left out. I think, if Dante did base his Satan off of this, Dante made the right choice of changing it to three heads rather than one head with two snakes coming out.

October 25, 2014 at 10:20 PM

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