A 16th-century portrait of Dante Alighieri, thought lost, will be showcased in Moscow on January 21 as part of an exhibition commemorating the 700th anniversary of the Italian poet's death, the Voznesensky art center, which will host the event, said on Monday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th December, 2021) A 16th-century portrait of Dante Alighieri, thought lost, will be showcased in Moscow on January 21 as part of an exhibition commemorating the 700th anniversary of the Italian poet's death, the Voznesensky art center, which will host the event, said on Monday.
The masterpiece was created in 1532-1533, but was then lost and eventually recovered in the 1990s by a European collector, the art center said. After Russian businessman Leonid Boguslavsky bought the painting in 2020, the portrait was exhibited in New York and Saint Petersburg.
"It is the anniversary of Dante Alighieri's death in 2021. In honor of this important date for the history of the European culture, the exhibition called 'Agnolo Bronzino. Allegoric portrait of Dante' will open at Voznesensky Center on January 21, 2022. The portrait of Dante by Agnolo Bronzino, a Florentine artist of the 16th century, will be the exhibition's centerpiece," the statement said.
Exhibition curator Victoria Markova described the painting's arrival as an "event of paramount importance," given how long it was missing.
The exhibition will span three halls. Apart from the prominent painting, the exhibition will present rare books of the 15th-20th centuries, translations of Dante's works in other languages, and artifacts that will give visitors an idea of how Dante's writing influenced world literature, the art center said.
Dante, author of The Divine Comedy, died in Ravenna in exile from his native Florence on September 13, 1321.
