For an English translation of ‘Inferno, canto XIII’, translated by the Rev. H. F. Cary, see: http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/dante/d19he/canto13.html
]]>This photographic artwork by Australian artist Fiona Hall belongs to a series titled ‘Illustrations to Dante’s Divine Comedy’. It is held by The National Gallery of Australia and depicts a scene from canto XIII of Dante Alighieri’s ‘Inferno’, the first part of his famous medieval Italian poem The Divine Comedy. Written between 1308 and 1321, The Divine Comedy tells of Dante’s journey through hell, purgatory and paradise respectively, guided at first by the Roman poet Virgil and then by his ideal woman, Beatrice. In canto XIII, Dante and Virgil descend into the second ring of the seventh circle of hell, where people who committed suicide were cast. They come across a thorny, tangled forest of gnarled trees that bleed and cry in pain when they are broken. One of the trees, who identifies himself as Pier della Vigna, a prominent figure at the imperial court of Frederick II, explains to Dante that people like himself who committed suicide were sent by Minos to the wood where they would grow into trees, all the while being wounded by harpies (half woman/half-bird creatures) who would tear and feast on their leaves. They are then disturbed by the sight of two figures running frantically through the forest. The slower of the two, subsequently identified as Giacomo of Sant’ Andrea, takes refuge in a bush, only to be pounced upon by a number of black female mastiffs who ‘rent him piecemeal’.
For an English translation of ‘Inferno, canto XIII’, translated by the Rev. H. F. Cary, see: http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/dante/d19he/canto13.html
Florence has a number of extant Romanesque buildings built between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. The buildings provided inspiration for some of the Florentine architects of the Renaissance.
For the newspaper report see http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39478203
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This Australian Mutual Provident Society building is in the centre of the Tasmanian city of Launceston. It was designed by local architects Lesley Gordon Corrie (1859-1918) and Alexander North (1858-1945) and built by J. and T. Gunn. It opened in 1892. An anonymous report in the Launceston Examiner newspaper (November 19, 1892) gives the particulars of the building, which is described as being in the Florentine Romanesque style. Romanesque features of the stone building include the semi-circular window arches with molding and decorated columns on the upper floor, the semi-circular arch above the company monogram, the use of foliage motifs, and the frieze above the entrance.
Florence has a number of extant Romanesque buildings built between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. The buildings provided inspiration for some of the Florentine architects of the Renaissance.
For the newspaper report see http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39478203
For more of the campus see http://ausmed.arts.uwa.edu.au/items/show/1234
]]>The Mowbray campus of the Launceston Church Grammar School in Launceston, Tasmanian, has a number of buildings of different eras with medieval features. These include the administration building whose foundation stone was laid by Prime Minister Stanley Melbourne Bruce (1883-1967) in 1923, and the more recent Henrietta Cooper Music School and the small corner tower. All of these buildings feature buttresses and rounded Tudor, or four-centred, arch doorways, and the buttresses of the corner tower continue to form crenellation, whilst the corner buttress at the entrance to the administration building ends in a pointed arch. The music school also has a bay window, a common feature of Gothic Revival architecture.
For more of the campus see http://ausmed.arts.uwa.edu.au/items/show/1234
For the exterior see http://ausmed.arts.uwa.edu.au/items/show/1237
http://ausmed.arts.uwa.edu.au/items/show/1242
For the Australian Heritage Database entry on the building see http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahdb/search.pl?mode=place_detail;search=place_name%3Dlaunceston%2520post%2520office%3Btown%3Dlaunceston%3Bstate%3DTAS%3Bkeyword_PD%3Don%3Bkeyword_SS%3Don%3Bkeyword_PH%3Don%3Blatitude_1dir%3DS%3Blongitude_1dir%3DE%3Blongitude_2dir%3DE%3Blatitude_2dir%3DS%3Bin_region%3Dpart;place_id=105210
]]>The Launceston Post Office is in the centre of the Tasmanian city of Launceston, and is one of four Heritage Property Showcase buildings of Australia Post for 2012. It was designed by architect William W. Eldridge (1850-1933) in 1885 with some alterations made by architects Lesley Gordon Corrie (1859-1918) and Alexander North (1858-1945) in 1890, the year the building opened. The red brick and freestone Post Office is in the Federation Queen Anne style, and incorporating elements of Free Romanesque. The Romanesque elements are obvious in the unusual interior which features an internal quadrangle (now glassed in) with balconies and windows. These elements include prominent use of semi-circular arches in the doorways and windows, and a pattern of alternating red brick and freestone, also known as ‘blood and bandage’, to highlight these features. The interior also includes leadlight windows.
For the exterior see http://ausmed.arts.uwa.edu.au/items/show/1237
http://ausmed.arts.uwa.edu.au/items/show/1242
For the Australian Heritage Database entry on the building see http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahdb/search.pl?mode=place_detail;search=place_name%3Dlaunceston%2520post%2520office%3Btown%3Dlaunceston%3Bstate%3DTAS%3Bkeyword_PD%3Don%3Bkeyword_SS%3Don%3Bkeyword_PH%3Don%3Blatitude_1dir%3DS%3Blongitude_1dir%3DE%3Blongitude_2dir%3DE%3Blatitude_2dir%3DS%3Bin_region%3Dpart;place_id=105210