Dante, Artist of Gesture by Heather Webb (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Dante, Artist of Gesture by Heather Webb Martina Franzini Heather Webb, Dante, Artist of Gesture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022), 208 pp. In Dante, Artist of Gesture, Heather Webb proposes a reading of gestures in Dante’s Comedy that combines textual and visual analysis. Webb argues that Dante intentionally conveys gestures in the Comedy as a narrative strategy to engage readers’ emotions. Since this is a poem about redemption, readers might reproduce the same postures as the souls and join in their process of penance. The book provides a creative methodology incorporating modes of investigation of diverse fields of study. Each chapter presents examples from works of Dante, from the Vita Nova to the Comedy, without necessarily focusing on a distinct section but suggesting instead a cross-canto (and sometimes cross-work) kind of reading to shed light on disparate, noncontiguous moments in the text. Furthermore, every chapter is enriched by images from manuscripts of the Comedy to explain how the text’s visual reception allows us to comprehend Dante’s characterization of gesture. In the first chapter, Webb begins with an overview of theories on gestures through different fields of study. In particular, she looks at visual studies. At the same time, she also clarifies some issues regarding the contextualization of distinct medieval signs. The second chapter continues to set up the methodological foundation for applying viewing models from the visual arts to Dante’s text. Webb recollects some studies investigating the connection between the Comedy and art represented in the Baptistery of Florence, the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, and churches in Assisi. Readers of the poem were the same viewers of art in churches, so they make “connections that traverse the textual and visual fields to fully participate in the poem and its devotions” (50). Webb looks at representation external to the poem and the gestural connection between different cantos to demonstrate how the Comedy approximates viewers’ engagement with [End Page 269] illustrated representation. As an instance of a connection between episodes of gestures in the Comedy and visual depiction of the same gestures in art, Webb argues how Bonconte’s arms crossing in Purgatorio 5 resembles a representation in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. The middle section of the book analyzes passages from Purgatorio. In chapter 3, Webb focuses on gestural choreography in Purgatorio 5 and 6. Dante challenges readers with these cantos to reflect on their condition through specific kinesic descriptions. In Purgatorio 5, Dante’s and Virgil’s actions express a kind of gestural ethics; their movements are indications of an affective reaction to the souls of the Ante Purgatory. Sounds also contribute to this aspect, and Webb observes how the use of a particular interjection, “deh,” serves to catch the attention “both within the diegesis and beyond the frame of the text, reaching to the reader” (75). For Purgatorio 6, the analysis focuses on the figure of Sordello, presenting an innovative interpretation. The character’s gesture represents the blend of two systems of virtue, the classical and the Christian. His transition from stillness and movement denotes the stability of classical virtues and the Christian morals of moving toward the other. Webb observes how Sordello’s dynamism creates a distinct ethical system. In the following chapter, the attention moves to the gluttons. This specific example is significant because, according to Webb, it not only defines the penance of this terrace but works broadly as a kinesic point of contact with other gestures in the poem. In this chapter, the argument builds by examining later illuminations of the Comedy. Webb dwells on purgatorial descriptions of virtues or vices that are particularly visual to underline their link with existing iconographies and comprehend how early readers conceived the gestural penance of the poem. For instance, in the Egerton 943 manuscript, the gluttons are represented with their hands composed to pray so that “rather than taking their vice to a physical extremity, they are converting their desire to prayer” (117). Differently, in the case of Botticelli’s drawings, the gluttons display different gestures, and this variety of poses offers the possibility of witnessing the various temporalities of purgation. The final two chapters examine gestures in Paradiso. Webb...