Italian school; end of the 19th century.

Italian school; end of XIX century.
"Dante".
Carved marble.
Measurements: 40 x 37 x 20 cm.
Sculpture made by direct carving, with smooth finish on the surfaces of the face and more marked treatment in the features of the face and clothes. The work represents Dante Alighieri (Florence, 1265 - Ravenna, 1321), Florentine poet, writer and philosopher, capital figure of the medieval European culture. He is known for his work the Divine Comedy, originally called Comedy and later baptized as Divina by Giovanni Boccaccio, considered one of the most important poems of the Middle Ages and the greatest literary work in the Italian language.
The portrait follows the traditional iconographic models of the author, presenting him with idealized features and grave expression, in keeping with the canonical image of the poet as a thinker and visionary. The choice of marble and the sober treatment of the forms reinforce the timeless and monumental character of the representation.
The sculpture is part of the renewed nineteenth-century interest in the great figures of Italian history and culture, understood as an exercise of identity affirmation and national memory. Dante was then elevated to the category of moral, linguistic and cultural symbol of Italy, which motivated a wide production of sculptural and monumental portraits.
The work responds to an academic conception of the sculptural portrait, in which the formal clarity, the legibility of the character and the intellectual dignity of the model are privileged. The balance between idealization and verisimilitude places the piece within the Italian sculptural tradition of the late nineteenth century.