100 Lithographs Dante’s Divine Comedy

Liam Ó Broin

The Office of Public Works, Dublin Castle, in collaboraton with the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Dublino, are celebrating the seven hundredth anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri 1265 - 1321.

The Italian poet Dante, born in Florence in the 13th century, was the poet and historian of that city. Passionate, biter, and exiled from the city he loved, he wrote the three volumes of The Divine Comedy: Inferno; Purgatory; Paradise, at the beginning of the fourteenth century.

La Divina Commedia, more widely known as The Divine Comedy was written over seven hundred years ago by the Italian medieval poet Dante Alighieri. This exhibition in Dublin Castle’s Coach House Gallery celebrates the poet’s life and his death in 1321, with 100 lithographs. A lithograph is essentially a print where the artist can draw directly onto a limestone slap or plate – separate drawings representing each colour are made and then the completed image is editioned by hand by the artist.

The poem of 100 verses or cantos, is an epic poetic journey encapsulated into a few days, over an Easter weekend: which takes the reader deep through four worlds. The worlds of the imaginary –Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso and the reality of this world – Earth. It is also, amongst many other aspects, the personal odyssey of a troubled human being coming to terms with his weaknesses and searching out a measure of atonement – a salvation in the context of his world, as he then knew it – the Hell on earth created by ourselves and for others in a world which in terms of the human condition has in reality, changed very little since Dante’s time.

Rapidly recognised as a masterpiece, this work has always fascinated artists. Over the centuries, from Giovanni de Paolo and Botticelli onwards artists and interpreters have squared up to the task, not just of illustrating Dante, but of responding to him. In the 21st century, the Irish artist Liam Ó Broin, who lives close to the river Boyne in the neighbourhood of Slane, is the latest to respond to the Italian poet, producing over the course of ten years, 100 large scale, vibrant lithographs, predominantly in colour; the largest printmaking project of its kind ever undertaken in Ireland. The exhibition, curated by Brian McAvera, not only showcases the remarkable series of prints but also provides contextual background – artist's notes, drawings and sources – in a series of display cases, and is also accompanied by a ten minute explanatory film which explains and illuminates the process of lithography and provides, in simple language, a number of ways for the viewer to look at and understand the lithographs.

There are explanatory captions under each lithograph and a detailed catalogue which reproduces all one hundred lithographs.

Location: Coach House Gallery, Dublin Castle Gardens, Dublin Castle, Dame Street, Dublin 2

Dates: 10 May 2021 – 10 October 2021

Times: 10:00–17:00

Website: https://www.dublincastle.ie/event/dantesdivine-comedy/

Admission: Free