“The Measure of Man: Perspective, History, and Ethics in Purgatorio X-XII”
Giuseppe Mazzotta

Cantos X-XII of Purgatorio are marked by an extended representation of sculptures dramatizing, first, the virtue of humility and, second, the vice of pride.

The moral psychomachia of pride vs. humility takes as its point of departure St. Thomas Aquinas’ reflections on the virtues and vices (Quaestiones disputate de malo), but explores Dante’s strategy of taking theological discourse into new imaginative directions. More precisely, the sculptures in Purgatorio X are referred to as God’s art and they serve several purposes. They figure, first of all, as examples of humility for both the penitents who expiate their sin in this ledge of Purgatorio and for the pilgrim’s own spiritual ascent. These examples of humility, however, are called “storie”. As figurations of art, “storie” stand for “things seen”. In thematic terms, these stories are also histories: they are narratives of what Dante conceives as a theology of history and they condense events drawn from sacred and secular history. The tell the stories of the Annunciation; of the humility of David dancing in front of the ark, and the justice of the Roman Emperor Trajan.

The burden of this presentation is to focus on the terms binding together question of theology and history, ethical discourse (the meaning of pride and humility), and art from a fresh perspective. What I wish to argue is that for Dante the world of art—esthetics— is not just an issue of giving visibility to the ethical experiences of the pilgrim. Nor, as has long been the case in scholarly debates, the issue at stake is the interaction between art and theology in Dante’s poetics. By a close textual attention and by retrieving sources so far unknown (Augustinian and Franciscan notions of pride and humility) I will show that art for Dante opens up a new perspective on theological and ethical issues: theology and ethics are questions of art and of perspective. I intent to finish by suggesting the dramatic, fundamental importance canto X has in each of the three canticles of the Divine Comedy.