The Italian Cultural Institute in Lisbon, in partnership with the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, has organized an exhibition titled: “UN MIRABILE INFERNO. Dante illustrated by Amos Nattini”, edited by Domenico Iuorio and Isabella Proia. The exhibition, promoted by the Directorate General for Cultural and Economic Promotion and Innovation and the Analysis, Programming and Historic-Diplomatic Documentation Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, will open on 28 June and run until 16 September.
The works on display are the 17 first cantos of Dante’s Inferno which are part of the monumental edition of the Divina Commedia illustrated by the Genoa-born painter Amos Nattini (1892-1985) and come from a special edition of the book found in the collection of the Biblioteca Farnesina of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, which was donated by the aforesaid painter in 1927 to the then Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Dino Grandi.
The restoration of the volume and illustrations was made possible through the work of the Istituto Centrale per la Patologia degli Archivi e del Libro (ICPAL). The book forms part of the heritage of the Biblioteca Farnesina.
Amos Nattini dedicated many years of his artistic life to illustrating the Divina Commedia. Conceived in 1915, the work started taking shape from 1919. The watercolor tables were displayed in the most important Italian and European centers up to 1939, the year in which the Paradiso’s 33rd Canto was illustrated.
