In Conclusion...



Dante in Study - Tom Phillips

The art in this project represents a mere iota of  modern day artists who've paid homage to Dante's Inferno. Their paintings and illustrations touched me in some way or another and each of these artists creatively expressed their vision of Dante's poem (classically, futuristically, comically, abstractly, or surrealistically) while retaining the integrity of the original masterpiece.

Inferno, a tour de force of the imagination has been germane to literature and theology for more than seven hundred years. The poem isn't about being dead; it's about being alive with hope and purpose. Undeniably, humans are flawed; the nature of mankind hasn't changed since Dante wrote about the depravity, perversion and immorality of his day, and Inferno reminds us that there are consequences for our actions. It matters if we are hateful or loving, weak or strong, caring or self-centered, arrogant or humble, greedy or sharing.

Therefore, I respectfully disagree with any assertion that modern day artists consider Dante irrelevant. Like Dante did in his time, present day artists continue to make political and social commentary through their work. As artist Patricia Cronin observes, "war, corrupt politicians, religious hypocrisy and strife, unstable economic markets and natural disasters still plague us."