Table Of ContentDante, Artist of Gesture
Dante, Artist of Gesture
HEATHER WEBB
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Acknowledgements
This book was written in pandemic conditions; I am all the more grateful
tothosewhosupportedmyworkinthemosttryingcircumstances.Without
researchleavemadepossiblebyaLeverhulmeResearchFellowship,thisbook
wouldneverhavefounditswaytocompletion.TheLeverhulmeadministra-
tors showed kindness and flexibility in permitting an extension when work
was stalled by library and school closures. Claire Honess and Simon Gilson
believed in the project and supported it from the earliest stages; their guid-
ance and faith made it possible. It was Giuseppe Ledda who first made it
clear to me that this was the next monograph I needed to write, and that
my research on gesture in Dante merited more comprehensive treatment
than I had initially allowed it. I am grateful to him for his sage advice and
his feedback on various aspects of the arguments in these pages. Gervase
Rosser offered crucial insight and encouragement at a number of necessary
pointsinthebook’strajectory.Conversationswithmanygenerouscolleagues
have sustained the work that has come together here, including Charlotte
Alton, Zyg Barański, Paolo Borsa, David Bowe, Abigail Brundin, Theodore
Cachey, George Corbett, Sonia Gentili, Robert Gordon, Robert Harrison,
Catherine Keen, Robin Kirkpatrick, Aiste˙ Kiltinavicˇiūte˙, Nicolò Morelli,
Vittorio Montemaggi, Daragh O’Connell, Anna Pegoretti, Helena Phillips-
Robins, Catherine Pickstock, Katherine Powlesland, and Jonny Wiles. The
FacultyofModernandMedievalLanguagesandLinguisticsattheUniversity
ofCambridgeandSelwynCollegeprovidedspaces,communities,andsuste-
nanceofallkindsfortheproject.IamgratefultotheeditorialteamatOxford
UniversityPress,andoweahugedebtofgratitudetotheanonymousreaders
whoprovidedexpertfeedbackonthebook.Finally,allmythankstomyfamily,
andespeciallytoPierpaoloAntonello,fortheiruntiringloveandsupport.
Contents
ListofIllustrations vii
EditionsandTranslations viii
Introduction:ViewingandReadingGesture 1
1. ReadingBodiesinMotion 14
2. DanteasVisualArtist 39
3. FixityandFlexibility 67
4. ModellingGesturalVirtuesinDante’sPurgatorio 103
5. AsymmetricalAffections 131
6. HeavenlyProximitiesandContagions 156
Bibliography 188
Index 198
List of Illustrations
0.1. DanteandVirgilmeetStatius.©TheBritishLibraryBoard.EgertonMS
943,f.100v(detail). 9
2.1. VirgilpickingareedtobindaroundDante’swaist.©TheBritishLibrary
Board.EgertonMS943,f.64v(detail). 47
2.2. TheArkoftheCovenantinprocession.©TheBritishLibraryBoard.
EgertonMS943,f.80v(detail). 59
3.1. Visitation,BaptisteryofSanGiovanni,Florence.Publicdomain. 96
3.2. Giotto,Visitation,ScrovegniChapel,Padua.Publicdomain. 97
3.3. Giotto,PactofJudas,ScrovegniChapel,Padua.Publicdomain. 98
3.4. Giotto,Invidia,ScrovegniChapel,Padua.Publicdomain. 100
3.5. Giotto,Karitas,ScrovegniChapel,Padua.Publicdomain. 101
3.6. SordelloandVirgil.©BodleianLibraries,UniversityofOxford.MS.
Holkhammisc.48,p.67(detail). 102
4.1. Dante’svisionsofMaryandPeisistratus’wife.©TheBritishLibrary
Board.EgertonMS943,f.90r(detail). 107
4.2. Dante’svisionofthestoningofStephen.©TheBritishLibraryBoard.
EgertonMS943,f.90v(detail). 112
4.3. Thegluttonousbesidethetree.©TheBritishLibraryBoard.Egerton
MS943,f.107r(detail). 116
4.4. Thegluttonous.©BodleianLibraries,UniversityofOxford.MS.
Holkhammisc.48,p.103(detail). 118
4.5. Botticelli,PurgatorioCanto23.©bpkBerlin/Kupferstichkabinett,
SMB/PhilippAllard. 119
4.6. Botticelli,PurgatorioCanto24.©bpkBerlin/Kupferstichkabinett,
SMB/PhilippAllard. 120
4.7. Giotto,Spes,ScrovegniChapel,Padua.Publicdomain. 127
4.8. Giotto,Desperatio,ScrovegniChapel,Padua.Publicdomain. 128
4.9. Giotto,Inconstantia,ScrovegniChapel,Padua.Publicdomain. 129
5.1. Botticelli,ParadisoCanto20.©bpkBerlin/Kupferstichkabinett,
SMB/PhilippAllard. 148
5.2. Botticelli,ParadisoCanto5.©bpkBerlin/Kupferstichkabinett,
SMB/PhilippAllard. 154
6.1. ParadisoCanto27©TheBritishLibraryBoard.EgertonMS943,f.174r
(detail). 184
6.2. ParadisoCanto33©TheBritishLibraryBoard.EgertonMS943,f.185r
(detail). 186
Editions and Translations
Unless otherwise stated, editions and translations of Dante’s works are the
following:
LaCommedia,ed.GiorgioInglese,3vols.(Rome:Carocci,2016).
The Divine Comedy, trans. Robin Kirkpatrick, 3 vols. (London: Penguin,
2006–7).Sometranslationshavebeenalteredslightlyforliteralmeanings
indescriptionsofgestures.
Convivio, ed. Gianfranco Fioravanti, with the canzoni edited by Claudio
Giunta (Milan: Mondadori, 2019). Translation by Richard H. Lansing
as found on Columbia University’s Digital Dante website, available at
https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/text/library/the-convivio/.
De vulgari eloquentia, ed. and trans. Steven Botterill (Cambridge: Cam-
bridgeUniversityPress,1996).
Epistole,Egloge,Questiodeaquaetterra,ed.MarcoBaglio,LucaAzzetta,
MarcoPetoletti,andMicheleRinaldi(Rome:Salerno,2016),pp.192–217
(p.204).TranslationandcommentaryinClaireHoness,DanteAlighieri,
FourPoliticalLetters(London:MHRA,2007).
Monarchia,ed.PrueShaw(Florence:LeLettere,2009).
Vita nuova, Rime, ed. Donato Pirovano and Marco Grimaldi (Rome:
Salerno,2015).
Vita nuova, trans. Andrew Frisardi (Evanston: Northwestern Univer-
sity Press, 2012). https://digitaldante.columbia.edu/text/library/la-vita-
nuova-frisardi/.Sometranslationshavebeenalteredslightly.
Introduction
Viewing and Reading Gesture
OnethingthattheCovidpandemichasmadepainfullyclearisthatphysical
proximitymatters.Wehavehadtoteachourselvesnewwaysofperceivingour
bodily distance from others as we have had to accept new forms of regula-
tion of our bodily movement in public space. At a moment in which we are
asked to protect ourselves and others by constantly assessing and maintain-
ingdistance,itseemsvitaltoconsiderwhatisatstakeinethicalandpolitical
systemsofproximityandisolation.Dante,ArtistofGestureproposesthinking
Dante’sCommediaasafourteenth-centuryconstructionofadynamicgestu-
ralsystemofinclinationtowardsone’sneighbour,asortofethosofproximity.
Thekinesicmodeofhumanresponsethatemergesoverthecourseofthethree
canticlesdependsonintra-andextra-textualrecoursetoavastarrayofimages
andculturalpractices,invitingthereadertoparticipateinachoreographywith
implicationsthatareethical,political,andspiritual.
Describedgestures,particularlyasstagedinDante’srealmofPurgatory,are
one key way in which the poet seeks to make his characters recognizable to
readers,evenastheyfunctionasexamplesofviceorvirtue.¹Buthowdothose
gesturesrenderthemselvesvisible?Howdothey,intheirparticularinstantia-
tions,dependonknownexamplesofvicesandvirtues?Howdoesgestureact
inDante’sCommediaandhowcanwe,asreaders,‘view’andrespondtogesture
inDante?Endeavouringtoanswerthesequestionswillrequireaninnovative
methodologythatbridgesmodesofinvestigationbetweentextualandvisual
analysis.²WhenDantesays:‘vedi’(look)inhistext,ashesooftendoes,Isug-
gest he is inviting the reader into a series of practices that include but also
exceedwhatwenowthinkofasreadingandmighthavemuchtodowithwhat
wethinkofasviewing,aswhenweviewaworkoraprogrammeofvisualart.
¹InmyDante’sPersons:AnEthicsoftheTranshuman(Oxford:OxfordUniversityPress,2016),
Ibegantothinkabouttherolethatgesturesplayinrenderingcharactersaspersons.Thispresent
volumepicksupfromthoseinitialconsiderationsfoundinthechapterentitled‘GesturalPersons’,
pp.34–82.
²Movingbetweentextualandvisualanalysisisachallengeforanyonetrainedinoneortheother
ofthesefields.Assomeonetrainedintextualanalysis,Iacceptthattherewillbegapsinmywork
andexpressgratitudetothescholarsinvisualanalysiswhohavepatientlyhelpedmealong.Iexpand
infurtherdetailinthechaptersthatfollowonthereasonswhyIbelievethatitisimpossibletoread
gestureinDantewithoutworkingthroughvisualanalysisalongsidetextualanalysis.
Dante,ArtistofGesture.HeatherWebb,OxfordUniversityPress.
©HeatherWebb(2022).DOI:10.1093/oso/9780192866998.003.0001
