On 19 January 2022, at 4 p.m., in the White Hall (Universiteto str. 3, 4th floor), Vilnius University Library, in partnership with the Italian Cultural Institute, will be launching an exhibition* of illustrations by the Italian artist Amos Nattini “Dazzling Inferno”.
The exhibition will show the illustrations from a copy of Dante’s “Inferno” that was donated by the artist Amos Nattini (1892-1985) himself to the than Deputy of the State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dino Grandi. For a long time, the document was forgotten until it was recently discovered in the holdings of the Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Ministry’s library.
This edition of the book consists of the first seventeen cantos, each of which is printed in chalcography technique on both sides of cotton Fabriano paper sheets. A typeface for the printing of the poem was created by the same artist and it is shown in the exhibition through the text of the first canto. After some introductory illustrations, the artist created one chromolithography for each canto. There are sixteen of them (the ninth canto has no illustrations) and the measurements of each chromolithography slightly vary.
Nattini had established his unique style as early as in 1915, when he presented three works illustrating three cantos to the Permanent Art Exposition in Milan. In quest for deeper understanding of the poem and while preparing to mark the 600th death anniversary of Dante, Nattini once again engaged in the illustration of “Inferno” cantos. Since then, for a full twenty years, he had devoted all his work solely to this goal, which he pursued with monastic zeal, without distractions or switching to other themes.
The commemoration of the 700th death anniversary of Dante Alighieri in 2021 came as a good opportunity to re-discover Amos Nattini and his most spectacular creations - the illustrations of “ Divine Comedy”. The artist might be considered a significant and impressive representative of the art of the beginning of the 20th century not only in Genoa but also in the entire Italy.
The exhibition will be on display in the White Hall of Vilnius University Library (Universiteto str. 3, 4th floor) from 19 January 2022 to 3 February.
*Attendees must wear masks of no lesser that FFP2 class.
Snieguolė Misiūnienė
2022-01-14