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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) by Dante Alighieri: 'erstarrte.' The verb 'erstarren' more properly means 'to solidify' or 'to
stiffen.' This suggests a chemical reaction in which the art does not
necessarily chill in the transformation. Nor can simple thawing yield the
original work. Like a chemical reaction it requires an artistic catalyst, a
muse. Indeed the Danteum is not a physical translation of the Poem.
Terragni thought it inappropriate to translate the Comedy literally into a
non-literary work. The Danteum would not be a stage set, rather Terragni
generated his design from the Comedy's structure, not its finishes.
The poem is divided into three canticles of thirty-three cantos
each, plus one extra in the first, the Inferno, making a total of
one hundred cantos. Each canto is composed of three-line tercets,
The Divine Comedy (translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) |
