| TITLE
| Dante Alighieri |
| CREATOR | Unknown |
| DATE | 1800-1840 |
| DIMENSIONS | 27.5 x 15 x 9 in. |
| ORIGINAL FORMAT | Sculpture |
| MEDIUM | Plaster |
| PHYSICAL NOTE | This plaster sculpture is one of the 16 that sit atop the bookshelves in the library’s main hall. |
| LOCATION | Providence Athenæum: Main Library |
This bust of the medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri [1265-1321] is one of sixteen that circle the Athenæum’s main hall. It was donated to the library some time after James Phalen’s earlier 1840 donation of ten busts, though when is unknown.
Dante is most well known for his epic poem the Divine Comedy, widely considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language. Though Latin was the preferred language of scholarly writing at the time, Dante promoted the Italian language as a respected literary dialect, which allowed his work to be read by a more general audience. Dante was virtually unknown in the United States until 1867, when Henry Wadsworth Longfellow [1807-1882] produced his own translation of the Divine Comedy.
The artist of this work is unknown, as is its date of creation. Dante is depicted here as he often is, with a high standing collar, Medieval head covering that hides his hair, with a laurel wreath around his head.