Walking With Dante10 Mar 2024

Proud Oderisi Confronts The Vagaries Of Artistic Fame: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, Lines 73 - 108

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On Purgatory's terrace of pride, we turn from noble Omberto to an artist, a manuscript illuminator, Oderisi da Gubbio, who delivers some of the most memorable lines in all of PURGATORIO.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through the first half of Oderisi's speech, all about the vagaries of artistic fame, the passing of Cimabue in favor of Giotto, and the coming of a poet who can kick two well-known Guido's out of the Italian nest.

Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:49] My English translation of this passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 73 - 108. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation about this passage, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.

[05:18] Dante the pilgrim and the illuminator Oderisi appear to know each other--which may well be a first comment on the vagaries of artistic fame.

[06:48] Who were Oderisi da Gubbio and the Bolognese Franco?

[11:55] Laughter may be near the root of Dante's art.

[14:25] And desire may lie near the root of Dante's understanding of human behavior.

[18:29] Oderisi mixes his metaphors--he is no poet!

[20:21] Giotto surpasses Cimabue in the development of craft and its tie to fame.

[23:35] And someone (Dante?) may well pass the two Guidos in literature . . . although he may be more humbled than first appears to be the case.

[27:28] The prideful in PURGATORIO's first terrace reference the heretics in INFERNO.

[29:44] The end of the passage makes Brunetto Latini's grand, heroic speech into a lie.

[34:52] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XI, lines 73 - 108.

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