The exhibition halls of the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo host LA BELLEZZA CH’IO VIDI. THE DIVINE COMEDY AND THE MOSAICS OF RAVENNA, a permanent exhibition highlighting the connection between the mosaics of Ravenna and Dante Alighieri’s work.
The exhibition aims to document the influence of the mosaics of Ravenna on Dante’s work and the source of inspiration they represented for him as he wrote the extraordinary visions of the “Divine Comedy”.
More than 20 light panels explain the many connections between the mosaics and the verses of the Divine Comedy through explanatory texts taken from Iconografie Dantesche by Laura Pasquini (Longo editore) and suggestive comments of Il Vangelo secondo Ravenna by Andrè Frossard (Itaca edizione).
Justinian in the 6th canto of Paradise, the parade in the 29th canto of Purgatory recalling the one with the martyrs of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, the stars at the end of the three canticles of the Divine Comedy recalling the ones set in the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia.
The exhibition is the result of a scientific curation by a commission of experts and scholars including Laura Pasquini, Professor at the University of Bologna, Giuseppe Ledda, Professor at the University of Bologna and member of the National committee for Dante’s celebrations in 2021.
