"Recording" Mental Imagery

Rather than investigate, I have chosen to create! I am taking a digital art class this semester, and one of the things I have been experimenting with is making collages. Since I remember being very struck by the beginning of Canto 1, I decided to try to represent the dark wood in which Dante finds himself. Since I only have a few classes worth of experience, my skills are not by any means impressive; but I did my best to “paint” the picture that I had in my head while reading lines like the following:

“I cannot really say how I entered there, so full of sleep was I at the point when I abandoned the true way” (1.10-12).

“Then was the fear a little quieted that in the lake of my heart had lasted through the night” (1.19-20).

“It [the leopard] did not depart from before my face but rather so impeded my way” (1.34-35).

“The time was the beginning of morning, and the sun was mounting up with those stars” (1.37-38).

“He [the lion] seemed to be coming against me with his head high (1.46-47).

“That restless beast [the she-wolf]… was driving me back to where the sun is silent” (1.58-60).

“Why do you not climb the delightful mountain that is origin and cause of all joy (1.77-78).

            On the left side is the mountain that Dante so desperately wishes to reach. God, Mary, Lucia, and Beatrice appear so as to “explain” the chain of command that leads Virgil (also represented on this half of the collage) to Dante. I chose to place a heart in the lake because, although I remain unsure as to why Dante refers to his heart as a lake, I found the “imagery” (lines 19-20) to be quite unique.

            On the right side is the dark wood that Dante finds himself in at the beginning of the first Canto. The sleepwalker is Dante, and I chose to portray him in this way because it seems to be the way in which he himself feels he has arrived there. When he abandoned the true path, he was not conscious of his direction. This is also not the last time that “sleep” vocabulary is used – Dante often finds himself being “taken” by sleep, or waking up to “find” himself in a new place.

             Dante describes the wood as dark and bitter, and for this reason the image background is (nearly) black. (I also wanted the contrast between this place and the “joyous” mountain to be very extreme). I have represented the three beasts that Dante encounters, and my intention was to portray them as blocking his way to the mountain of “Paradise.”

            The sun has the “X” over its mouth, because Dante often mentions the “silence” of the sun, or of the light (as opposed to simply saying “it is dark”). I very much enjoy this language. I have also painted little stars, because although the wood is dark, Dante tells us that the morning is beginning, and that the stars are visible.

            I love the way that Dante Alighieri writes: the mental images that his words evoke for me are so clear. For this reason, I thought it would be a fun and interesting challenge to try to transfer what I see in my mind (when I read) to a digital image! :)