Option 1: Choose a work to discuss from one genre that interprets a work from another genre.
Include the title, artist, and description of both works.
Examine how the artist of the second work captured the subject or story of the first.
Support your point(s) with a statement from the second artist that discusses the influence, reasoning, or interpretation of the original work on the second work.
Click below for examples
Link: Examples
You could choose a specific artwork influenced by a literary work and how the artist captured the subject or story. (Examples: Salvador Dali’s Mad Tea Party and Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland; Pablo Picasso’s Don Quixote and Cervantes’s Don Quixote de la Mancha)
You could choose a literary work influenced by an artwork and how the author captured the story. (Examples: Picasso’s The Old Guitarist and Wallace Steven’s “The Man with the Blue Guitar”; Van Gogh’s Starry Night and Anne Sexton’s “The Starry Night”)
Option 2: Choose a work that is interdisciplinary (incorporates two or more disciplines), such as Hamilton from our lesson this week.
Include the title and artist(s).
Examine the genres that are intermingled to create the work.
How effective is the blending of genres in the work?
Why do you think the artist used different disciplines in the work?
Support your point(s) with a statement from the artist and one from a critic.
Option 3: Choose a work of art from any genre that depicts or tells the story of a real life event from any time period, such as The Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon and the Coronation of Empress Josphine on December 2, 1804 by Jacques Louis David.
Include the title and the artist and some background of the event.
What is the relationship between the work of art and the event?
Did the artist depict the event accurately?
Does the artist make changes regarding the event? If so, why do you think the artist made these changes?
Examine the artist’s message in the depiction.
Support your point(s) with a statement from the artist.
Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell.
In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.
God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.
Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.
To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.
References
Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.
Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.
Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.
Option 1: The Starry Night and “The Starry Night”
Original Work: The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh (1889), oil on canvas. This iconic post-impressionist painting depicts the view from the window of his asylum room in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France. It features a swirling night sky bursting with vibrant stars, a cypress tree reaching towards the heavens, and a small village nestled in the landscape below.
Interpreting Work: “The Starry Night” by Anne Sexton (1961), a poem. This poem captures the mood and emotional intensity of van Gogh’s painting, exploring themes of isolation, mental anguish, and the yearning for connection.
How Sexton Captured the Subject: Sexton’s poem utilizes vivid imagery, similes, and metaphors to create a powerful and personal interpretation of van Gogh’s masterpiece. She uses language that evokes the swirling, turbulent sky, the reaching cypress tree, and the sense of solitude and yearning present in the painting. Sexton also captures the emotional intensity of the original work, mirroring the raw emotions that van Gogh poured onto the canvas.
Option 1: The Starry Night and “The Starry Night”
Original Work: The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh (1889), oil on canvas. This iconic post-impressionist painting depicts the view from the window of his asylum room in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France. It features a swirling night sky bursting with vibrant stars, a cypress tree reaching towards the heavens, and a small village nestled in the landscape below.
Interpreting Work: “The Starry Night” by Anne Sexton (1961), a poem. This poem captures the mood and emotional intensity of van Gogh’s painting, exploring themes of isolation, mental anguish, and the yearning for connection.
How Sexton Captured the Subject: Sexton’s poem utilizes vivid imagery, similes, and metaphors to create a powerful and personal interpretation of van Gogh’s masterpiece. She uses language that evokes the swirling, turbulent sky, the reaching cypress tree, and the sense of solitude and yearning present in the painting. Sexton also captures the emotional intensity of the original work, mirroring the raw emotions that van Gogh poured onto the canvas.
Artist’s Statement: While Sexton never directly stated her specific intentions in writing the poem, her overall poetic approach suggests a strong desire to understand and connect with the emotional depth of van Gogh’s painting. Her poem allows the reader to experience the same sense of awe and wonder, but also the underlying melancholic feeling that van Gogh infused into his work.
Example of Sexton’s Captured Imagery:
The cypress tree is a ladder to heaven.
This line echoes the towering cypress in the painting, a symbol of aspiration and spiritual connection.
Conclusion: Sexton’s poem, “The Starry Night,” is a powerful testament to the enduring influence of van Gogh’s artwork. Through her unique voice and masterful use of language, Sexton transcends the boundaries of visual art and creates a deeply personal and emotional interpretation of this iconic masterpiece.
