Timothy Schmalz has dedicated his entire life to sculpture. His work can be found everywhere from his native Canada to St. Peter's Square at the Vatican.
Now he has another piece for the Vatican, to mark 700 years since the death of the author of the “Divine Comedy.”
TIMOTHY SCHMALZ
“This is the first of 100 sculptures to celebrate Dante. It's the first canto, which describes, or represents, Dante midway through life in a dark forest. So this is the beginning of an amazing project. This is the first time in 700 years that every single canto of the 'Divine Comedy' has been sculpted.”
The project took Schmalz about a year to complete. His big challenge was synthesizing each canto of the three-part literary work into a visual representation capable of communicating its complex message in a comprehensible way.
TIMOTHY SCHMALZ
“Dante wrote the Divine Comedy not in Latin, which was common in those days, but he wrote it in the common Italian, so the poem would be accessible to more people. Well, art and the visual is basically the universal language with our eyes, that hopefully will bring more people to fall in love with Dante.”
Schmalz had the opportunity to give this sculpture to one of Dante Alighieri's biggest fans: Pope Francis.
TIMOTHY SCHMALZ
“It's very exciting. I know Pope Francis loves Dante. It's part of the fabric of what it's like to be Catholic. Dante is all part of us. He belongs to all Catholics.”
The Pope has on different occasions encouraged people to read the Florentine poet. He even wrote an apostolic letter for this 700th anniversary.
Schmalz's next stop is Dante Alighieri's native Florence, where he will complete the final sculpture on Sept. 14, the anniversary itself. The original bronze casts of his Dante sculptures will be installed in Italy.
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