THE PERSONAL CHARACTER OF DANTE, AS REVEALED IN HIS WRITINGS. BY LUCY ALLEN PATON. BEING THE ESSAY BY A MEMBER OF THE CLASSES OF THE SOCIETY THE PERSONAL CHARACTER OF DANTE.1 CCORDING to one of the historians of Florence there ACCORDING one of of was to be found among her records of the last years of the thirteenth century a decree, the equal of which in loftiness and significance of expression few cities could boast: "Whereas it is the highest concern of a people of illustrious origin so to proceed in their affairs that men may perceive from their works that their designs are at once wise and magnanimous, it is therefore ordered that Arnolfo, architect of our commune, prepare the model or plan for the rebuilding of Santa Reparata, with such supreme and lavish magnificence that neither the industry nor the capacity of man shall be able to devise anything more grand or more beautiful; inasmuch as the most judicious in this city have declared and advised in public and private conferences that no work of the commune should be undertaken, unless the design be to make it correspondent with a heart which is of the greatest nature, because composed of the spirit of many citizens concordant in one single will." 2 Although the decree be apocryphal, this was the spirit which expressed itself in the sublime works that fill Florence to-day with rich associations. Italy was flushed with the intense intellectual excitement of the century. After a long period of dormant thought, France had felt the first impulse toward self-expression. By the 1 The texts used have been Scartazzini's for the Divina Commedia, and Fraticelli's for the Opere Minori. Where a translation has been quoted, that of the Divine Comedy by Longfellow has been used; that of the New Life by Norton. 2 Del Migliore, Firenze, Citta Nobilissima, 1684, p. 6; translated in Norton's "Church Building in the Middle Ages," p. 189. superb proportions of her architecture and poetry, and by her delicate adaptation of language to the expression of sentiment, she led the way in a movement which Sicily was not slow to follow. From Sicily the impulse extended to Italy, and filled Florence more than all other cities with the spirit of culture. Under her fostering influences Arnolfo reared the Palazzo Vecchio and the Duomo; Cimabue called to life the dead art of painting, and amid trumpets and garlands the Florentines, quick to respond to whatever appealed to them as beautiful, adorned their S. Maria Novella with the world-known Madonna. Giotto created his campanile, "the lily of Florence blossoming in stone," and proved himself even greater than his master in the art of painting: · "Credette Cimabue nella pintura Tener lo campo, ed ora ha Giotto il grido, Sì che la fama di colui è oscura." 1 But the work of Giotto which is of paramount interest to us is to be found in the chapel of the Palace of the Podestà. Here he decorated the altar-wall with a painting prompted by religious sentiment and Florentine pride. The head of Christ is designed above, and beneath this the escutcheon of Florence with angels supporting it; attendant saints are on the right and left, in front of whom stand distinguished civil authorities, and among those who lead the company is Dante. Even this figure did not save the composition from a fate kindred to that of many others of Florence's noblest works of art. At the period when she was lost to a sense of her past greatness, the Palace of the Podestà was used as a jail, and a sweep of the whitewash-brush effaced Giotto's work. Here it lay hidden until 1841, when the manifold efforts for its recovery made by lovers of Dante were rewarded, and under the care of Marini, a Florentine painter, the whitewash was removed from the fresco, and the portrait revealed in a comparatively good state of preser 1 Purgatorio, xi. 94. |