The artistic program of the Baptistery of San Giovanni in Dante’s liturgical imagination

Abstract

This paper 1 re-examines the relationship between Dante’s Commedia and the Baptistery of San Giovanni from an art historical perspective. Drawing on –– and then departing from –– earlier work by Dante scholars who described figurative echoes between the Commedia and the Baptistery’s mosaic program, this article reconceptualizes the relationship between the two as not only figurative, but also liturgical. Using the texts of two extant medieval Florentine libri ordinales to reconstruct the liturgy of Holy Saturday, I document the ways in which the decorative mosaic imagery of the Baptistery is reflected in and reinforced by the multisensory performance of the baptismal rite. I argue further that Dante ekphrastically reimagines this rite in cantos 1–2 and 29–33 of Purgatorio. By exploring Dante’s liturgical imagination vis-à-vis the multivalent space of the Baptistery, this paper articulates and illuminates the profound interconnections that can exist between medieval art, architecture, liturgy, and poetry.