Per Scaramuzza illustratore di Dante: una nota su Gerione

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is to offer a reading of the illustration of Geryon made by the painter and writer Francesco Scaramuzza (1803-1886), author of one of the most consistent and detailed visualisations of Dante’s Comedy. After an introduction about the portrait of the illustrator that emerges from the pages of Luciano Scarabelli’s Confronti critici (1870), the article analyses the depiction of Geryon, taking into account the adherence of Scaramuzza’s illustration to the text of the poem and its rhetorical strategies, the visualisation of symbolic and metatextual aspects, the reference to the theme of the crucifixion.

Keywords

• francesco scaramuzza
• gerione
• inferno
• illustrazione
• gustave doré