Dante Days 2025: 20 Years of Contemporary Art in Foligno
With the event Dante Days 2025, the city of Foligno, Umbria, will commemorate the 20th anniversary of an ambitious contemporary art project inspired by The Divine Comedy. Conceived by art critic Italo Tomassoni in collaboration with the Dante Committee of Foligno, this initiative has brought together international artists to reinterpret Dante’s masterpiece through visual art. The anniversary will be marked during the Dante Days (Giornate Dantesche), a week-long cultural festival from March 31 to April 6, 2025.
A City Steeped in Dantean History
Foligno holds a unique place in Dantean history: on April 11, 1472, it was here that the first printed edition of The Divine Comedy was produced in the Orfini-Numeister workshop. This significant event solidified the city’s role as a center for literary heritage. Since 2006, the Dante Days have merged literature, history, and contemporary art, commissioning renowned artists to create original works inspired by the three canticles of The Divine Comedy. The resulting collection forms an anastatic edition of the editio princeps, preserved in the Dante Alighieri Municipal Library.
Ubaldo Bartolini: The Featured Artist for 2025
The 2025 edition will showcase the works of Ubaldo Bartolini, a prominent exponent of Mannerist and Hyper-Mannerist painting. His vision of Dante’s universe will be presented on April 1 at Palazzo Trinci’s Sala Sisto IV, during the conference Ubaldo Bartolini: Drawing for The Divine Comedy, curated by Italo Tomassoni.
Bartolini’s landscapes, notes Italo Tomassoni:
transport us into scenes detached from time and history, evoking an eerie silence between Romanticism and the Sublime”.
His interpretation introduces a heretical variant of Abstract and Conceptual Art, bridging the past and present in a uniquely modern way.
A Legacy of Contemporary Artistic Exploration
Ubaldo Bartolini joins an illustrious roster of artists who have shaped this project over the past two decades. Previous contributors include members of the Transavanguardia, the School of San Lorenzo, and the Anachronism movement, such as Omar Galliani, Mimmo Paladino, Sandro Chia, Emilio Isgrò, Giuseppe Stampone, and Marinella Senatore. Each artist has approached Dante’s imagery with a distinct aesthetic, enriching an evolving collection that redefines the relationship between classical literature and modern art.
Dante Days 2025: A Celebration of Literature and Art
Promoted by the Municipality of Foligno, the Dante Committee, and the Dante Alighieri Municipal Library, the event Dante Days 2025 will explore the 28th Canto of Purgatory, which depicts Dante’s arrival in Eden. This theme aligns with the 800th anniversary of Saint Francis’ Canticle of the Creatures, reinforcing the event’s focus on the interplay between nature and poetic imagination.
An exclusive preview event on March 25, coinciding with Dantedì, will inaugurate Comicon, Drawing Dante, an exhibition of illustrators reinterpreting Dante’s work, running until July 6, 2025. Throughout the festival, scholars, writers, and historians will engage audiences in debates, book presentations, and discussions on Dante’s enduring influence.
The cultural gathering Dante Days 2025 not only reaffirm Foligno’s literary significance but also celebrate its ongoing dialogue between historical tradition and contemporary artistic innovation.
Images: Courtesy of Giornate Dantesche Foligno
