The Dante Sculpture Gardens

To commemorate the 700 year anniversary of Dante in 2021, Timothy Schmalz is creating a sculpture of each of the 99 cantos in the Divine Comedy. Included in the project is a life-size sculpture of Dante in exile.

Each sculpture highlights one of the most interesting scenes from the canto, creating a visual read of the epic poem. When complete the work will create a large sculpture garden that will walk people through what is widely considered the greatest work in the Italian language.

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The Divine Comedy

Inferno

Use the side arrows to scroll through the slideshow

Dante Canto 1

That wood, so savage and harsh and strong, / that to dwell in it renews the fear!

Dante Canto 2

Halfway Along The Journey of life,
Having stayed from the right path and lost it, I awoke to find myself in a dark wood.

And behold, coming against us in a boat, / an old man, hair white with ancientry, /screeching: “Woe to you, you wretched spirits!”

Dante Canto 3

Dante Canto 4

So I saw the lovely school assembled, / the school of that lord of highest song, / who soars as an eagle over the others.

Dante Canto 5

“Love led us together to death. / Caina awaits the one who spilled our life.”

And then my leader spread his palms, / pressed the earth, and with his fists full / hurled the dirt down the lusting gullets.

Dante Canto 6

Dante Canto 7

They burst upon each other and pushed their burdens / back, shouting as they wheeled away: / “Why do you grasp?” and “Why do you waste?”

Dante Canto 8

the shrewd master shoved him off, / saying: “Away there with the other dogs!”

Dante Canto 9

He came to the door and with a crook / opened it, such that there was no restraint.

Dante Canto 10

Immediately this voice sounded / from one of the arks; so accosted I came, / trembling, a bit nearer my leader.

Dante Canto 11

at the horrible cloud / of the stench breathed from that profound abyss / we recoiled to the cover // of a grand grave

Dante Canto 12

Around the trench they go, thousand by thousand, / shooting what soul swells / from the blood more than his fault permits.

Dante Canto 13

Then brown blood flowed from it, / and it began again to cry: “Why do you shear me? /Are you a spirit without any pity?

Dante Canto 14

Within the mountain stands erect a great old man, / who holds his shoulders turned against Damietta / and regards Rome as his looking glass.

Dante Canto 15

we encountered a herd of souls / who came along the bank, and each / regarded us as one at dusk // regards another under a new moon;

Dante Canto 16

so rotating, each directed his visage / to me, so that his neck turned back / as his feet continued their passage.

Dante Canto 17

“Now we descend on such stairs; / mount ahead, and I’ll hold the middle / so that the tail may pose no evil.”

Dante Canto 18

Here we heard the people who quiver / in the other bulge and snuffle about with their muzzles, / and hit themselves with their palms.

Dante Canto 19

Both soles of each one were aflame; / so that the joints jerked about so hard / they’d have split twisted strands of cord.

Dante Canto 20

for the faces were turned to the backs, / and it suited them to come backwards, / since to see ahead was taken from them.

Dante Canto 21

Then they raked him with more than a hundred hooks / and said: “Here you must dance under cover / and thieve in secret if you can.”

Dante Canto 22

Graffiacane, who was closest to him, / hooked him by the pitch-thick mane / and dragged him up, so that he seemed to me an otter.

Dante Canto 23

He came to the door and with a crook / opened it, such that there was no restraint.

Dante Canto 24

their hands were bound behind with serpents; / these fixed head and tail through the legs / and then gripped each other in front.

Dante Canto 25

He came to the door and with a crook / opened it, such that there was no restraint.

Dante Canto 26

He came to the door and with a crook / opened it, such that there was no restraint.

Dante Canto 27

He came to the door and with a crook / opened it, such that there was no restraint.

Dante Canto 28

He came to the door and with a crook / opened it, such that there was no restraint.

Dante Canto 29

and so the nails scraped the scabs / as the knife does the scales of the carp / or other fish with still larger scales.

Dante Canto 30

He came to the door and with a crook / opened it, such that there was no restraint.

Dante Canto 31

He came to the door and with a crook / opened it, such that there was no restraint.

Dante Canto 32

He came to the door and with a crook / opened it, such that there was no restraint.

Dante Canto 33

“I believe,” I said to him, “that you deceive me; / for Branca Doria has not yet died, / and he eats and drinks and sleeps and dons his clothes.”

Dante Canto 34

If he was as lovely as he’s ugly now, / and lifted his brow against his maker, / well ought every loss proceed from him.

Purgatory

To see the full Purgatory please go to the website.

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Paradise

To see the full Paradise please go to the website.

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Project Description

The Dante Sculpture Gardens

The Divine Comedy

Inferno

Purgatory

Paradise