The House That Hell Hath Wrought:
Examining the Relationship Between the Palacio Barolo and Dante’s Inferno
The late architect Professor Sir Edmund Happold wrote, “A world which sees art and engineering as divided is not seeing the world as a whole” (Sharpe). With these words he recognized and articulated the importance of interdisciplinarity in regards to art and architecture. When the enduring nature of a literary work combines with the durability of buildings, an even more lasting permanence comes into being. Through an inspired architectural design, Dante Alighieri’s timeless work, the Inferno, has been immortalized in stone. The Palacio Barolo in Buenos Aires, Argentina, stands as concrete testament to and celebration of the lasting
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Its grand height of roughly one-hundred meters—just slightly taller than the tower at the University of Texas at Austin—corresponds to the one-hundred cantos of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Palanti drew heavily upon Dantean numerology in his design. The official website for the Palacio Barolo details the multiple numerical references to the Divine Comedy that may be observed within the building’s structure. Modeled after the ternary structure of the Divine Comedy, the Palacio Barolo is likewise divided into three sections. The top floors represent the Paradiso, or Heaven; the middle floors represent the Purgatorio, or purgatory; the bottom floor and basement represent the Inferno, or hell (Cusack). Nine arches, each signifying the nine circles of hell, line the central hall (“Palacio Barolo”). In addition to the obvious numerical allusions to three and nine, Palanti also incorporated the numbers eleven and twenty- two into the building. The Palacio Barolo has twenty-two floors, with each floor separated into eleven units (Hilger). In the eighth circle of hell, Dante describes the circumference of the ninth and tenth bolgias as twenty-two miles and eleven miles, respectively (Inf. 29. 8-9; Inf 30. 86). Additionally, Dante’s terza rima verse scheme is hendecasyllabic, meaning each line consists of eleven syllables. That Palanti could …show more content…
Through his architectural work, Palanti expresses a unique/particular style; his work exhibits an “inclination toward heavy ornamentation and a deft handling of mass and proportions” (Neumann 142). By a small twisting of definitions, this description can easily apply to Dante’s writing style. One must only look to the elaborate, meticulously wrought world of the Inferno to see that Dante is a master architect in his own right. He builds his vision of hell so scrupulously and so inventively that it not only persists, but continues to inspire so many years after its construction. Alice K. Turner credits Dante’s “architectural ingenuity” with the Inferno’s lasting popularity (33). His construction of Hell is a “direct inversion” of the Ptolemaic universe model, in which nine spheres orbit the earth in concentric circles (Turner 135). Rather than descending outward toward the Heavens, Dante’s nine circles of Hell funnel inward toward the center of the earth. Each circle is lower and smaller in circumference than the last, resembling “amphitheater bleachers,” according to Hilger. The landscape variations run the gambit from open green fields, to swamplands, to scorching desert, to forest, and more (Turner 133). The rich manufactured scenery of Hell includes “underground embankments, moats, castles, [and] paved trenches;” Dante’s attention to detail
With the Pantheon being built over 1700 years ago, it’s amazing that architects are still using features and techniques from this work of architecture in modern creations. The use of this type of classical architecture will continue to be used in works for public space due to its remarkable exterior appearance and it’s long lasting structural durability. When both Jesse hall and the Pantheon are compared it is possible to see their similarities from the types of domes that top each, their external facades, and their interior plan. While they share many similarities, the differences that Bell and Binder used in their creation make this work of architecture unique to many other public spaces.
Andrea Palladio was born in 1508A.D. in Italy. At a very young age he became a stone mason, however his journey into architecture began when he met Gian Giorgio Trissino who immediately saw ability in him and decided to mentor Palladio. Trissino combined a study of classical architecture with architecture of the time, all the while allowing Palladio room to develop a style of his own. In time Palladio was constructing villas through out the country side of Italy, in all he constructed 30 villas, 18 of which are still standing today. Perhaps Palladio’s most famous work was the Villa Rotondra or La Rotondra which was started around 1565 and took approximately 4 years to build and was greatly inspired by the Pantheon in Rome. It is interesting to note that la Rotondra is different from Palladio’s other villas in a number of ways, and it is evident that these differences help distinguish it from the rest. The main differences between Palladio’s Rotondra and his other work are, The Rotonda is set on a hilltop, it is located near a...
In circle three of Inferno, Dante conjures a despairing tone by use of vivid imagery and extensive detail to display the harrowing effects of gluttony. This is best exemplified through the weather patterns and general landscape of this circle, the Poets’ encounter with Cerberus, and Dante’s conversation with Ciacco, the Hog. These devices also allow for the conveying of ideas embedded within the text.
The first being that there was a certain construction to his hell. The shape, first and foremost, was with a cone. Being largest at the top and getting smaller and smaller as you went down. Of course, the farther you went down, the worse the sins. When taking into consideration how I would construct my own hell, I decided I would follow this same format. The people who committed the worst sins would sit in the bottom on hell, in like a pit. The people that committed sins that were the least offensive would be at the top of the cone, where it’s the widest. As far as the actual geography of hell, I don’t think I would follow Dante’s schemata exactly, although I would draw a couple ideas from it. One thing that I would keep the same is the fact that the punishment of the sinner would reflect the sin that he or she committed while on Earth. The thing that I would change would make hell a lot more personal. For example, the sin committed would deal with the person directly. What the person feared or dreaded the most would be the punishment inflicted upon them. Depending on the severity of the sin. For instance, someone simply lied, then the extent of their own fear wouldn’t be as severe as it would if they had killed
Dante Alighieri presents a vivid and awakening view of the depths of Hell in the first book of his Divine Comedy, the Inferno. The reader is allowed to contemplate the state of his own soul as Dante "visits" and views the state of the souls of those eternally assigned to Hell's hallows. While any one of the cantos written in Inferno will offer an excellent description of the suffering and justice of hell, Canto V offers a poignant view of the assignment of punishment based on the committed sin. Through this close reading, we will examine three distinct areas of Dante's hell: the geography and punishment the sinner is restricted to, the character of the sinner, and the "fairness" or justice of the punishment in relation to the sin. Dante's Inferno is an ordered and descriptive journey that allows the reader the chance to see his own shortcomings in the sinners presented in the text.
The Pazzi chapel marked a momentous return to classical rudiments. It has a central dome "reminiscent of the lines of Rome's Pantheon" (Cunningham 274). It has an oculus just like the Pantheon. Furthermore, although smaller in scale, the dome of the chapel is also hemispherical in shape and austere in design. Likewise, the chapel's twelve-ribbed dome approached the floor below it in the same respect as the Pantheon; completed after Brunelleschi's death, the chapel dome caps a severe rectangular base in the same way the Pantheon dome covers an ascetic circle. (Tractenberg). The chapel's dome, however, is itself capped with a cylindrical cupola "with delicate lantern" added in 1462 (Italy Field Study). Although they differ in base, both domes were framed according to circles. The image above illustrates the resemblance between the Pantheon's and Pazzi chapel's dome. The image on the left is the architectural plan of the Pazzi Chapel. The one on the right is that of the Roman Pantheon. If one is to draw a near perfect circle that fills the interior of the dome, as...
In Dante’s Inferno hell is divided into nine “circles” of hell; the higher the number correlates to the grimmer the sin and the pain you will endure. However, I do not completely agree with Dante’s version of hell, perhaps due to the difference in time periods. In this essay I will be pointing out my concerns with Dante’s description of hell and how I would recreate hell if I were Dante.
The first thing you would notice is the overall irony of Hell itself. As mentioned, most people have a view that Hell is very chaotic and in disarray. However, In Canto IV we find out that Hell is actually very organized. The structure of it is in fact “a great funnel-shaped cave… with its bottom point at the Earth’s center. Around this great circular depression runs a series of ledges, each of which Dante calls a CIRCLE.” (Alighieri 25). Most pictures you see of hell show images of very distressed people and demons running around in turmoil. They are usually all over the place and no sense of organization is apparent. There is also a map of hell that Dante has drawn in order to give us a clearer image of what Hell supposedly looks like (Alighieri 26). Through this we find that Dante has applied his use irony into the very structure of Hell. We also see that the people we thought were myths actually exist – in Dante’s eyes. Scattered throughout the book, we see several mythological characters that have indeed descended into Hell. On...
“Early in the spring of 1300, "midway along the road of our life," Dante is lost and alone in a dark, foreboding forest. To survive this ordeal, he must visit the three realms of the afterlife, beginning with Hell.” (Smith) Dante’s Inferno, one of the great classical poems that have come out of literature that’s topic is hell. Dante’s Inferno, gives a descriptive look into hell, from the eyes of Dante. Dante goes into detail about every part of hell. The people, what it looks like, sins to go there, the whole shah-bang. Dante splits up hell into nine different parts. In which he sends different types of sinners to each part. Each hell is made up differently, each has different systems that make up that particular systems. For example, circle three, has Cerberus the three headed dog, and another circle is completely frozen over. There are three circles of hell in Dante’s Inferno that are the best in the book: Circle one, circle six, and circle three.
Palladio had an exceptional grasp of the use of proportion in classical architecture and believed beautiful architecture improved p...
Inferno, the first part of Divina Commedia, or the Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri, is the story of a man's journey through Hell and the observance of punishments incurred as a result of the committance of sin. In all cases the severity of the punishment, and the punishment itself, has a direct correlation to the sin committed. The punishments are fitting in that they are symbolic of the actual sin; in other words, "They got what they wanted." (Literature of the Western World, p.1409) According to Dante, Hell has two divisions: Upper Hell, devoted to those who perpetrated sins of incontinence, and Lower Hell, devoted to those who perpetrated sins of malice. The divisions of Hell are likewise split into levels corresponding to sin. Each of the levels and the divisions within levels 7,8, and 9 have an analogous historical or mythological figure used to illustrate and exemplify the sin.
Inferno is the first and most famous of a three part series by Dante Alighieri known as the Divine Comedy that describes his journey to God through the levels of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise written in the early fourteenth century. Scholars spanning over nearly seven centuries have praised its beauty and complexity, unmatched by any other medieval poem. Patrick Hunt’s review, “On the Inferno,” states, “Dante’s extensive use of symbolism and prolific use of allegory— even in incredible anatomical detail—have been often plumbed as scholars have explored the gamut of his work’s classical, biblical, historical, and contemporary political significance” (9). In the story, each of the three main characters, Dante, Virgil, and Beatrice, represent
Dante Alighieri's The Inferno is a poem written in first person that tells a story of Dante’s journey through the nine circles of Hell after he strays from the rightful path. Each circle of Hell contains sinners who have committed different sins during their lifetime and are punished based on the severity of their sins. When taking into the beliefs and moral teachings of the Catholic Church into consideration, these punishments seem especially unfair and extreme.
Dante’s Inferno presents the reader with many questions and thought provoking dialogue to interpret. These crossroads provide points of contemplation and thought. Dante’s graphic depiction of hell and its eternal punishment is filled with imagery and allegorical meanings. Examining one of these cruxes of why there is a rift in the pits of hell, can lead the reader to interpret why Dante used the language he did to relate the Idea of a Just and perfect punishment by God.
Dante feels hell is a necessary, painful first step in any man’s spiritual journey, and the path to the blessed after-life awaits anyone who seeks to find it, and through a screen of perseverance, one will find the face of God. Nonetheless, Dante aspires to heaven in an optimistic process, to find salvation in God, despite the merciless torture chamber he has to travel through. As Dante attempts to find God in his life, those sentenced to punishment in hell hinder him from the true path, as the city of hell in Inferno represents the negative consequences of sinful actions and desires. Though the punishments invariably fit the crimes of the sinners and retributive justice reigns, the palpable emphasis of fear and pity that Dante imbues on the transgressors illustrates his human tendency to feel sympathy towards one who is suffering. For example, when Dante approaches the gat...