A pictorial anthology of the 1300s from Ravenna could begin at the time of Lamberto da Polenta, mayor from 1298 until 1316 and his nephew Guido Novello, who succeeded him until 1322. Under their government Ravenna experienced the most intense artistic flowering of its Middle Ages: Santa Chiara, Sant’Agata, San Francesco, San Domenico, San Giovanni Evangelista were then frescoed by the Rimini artists of Giotto’s school. The same artists also painted the parish church of San Pietro in Sylvis in Bagnacavallo (through the intercession of Countess Caterina Malvicini, wife of Guido Novello) and the majestic refectory of the Pomposa Abbey.
We certainly know that in 1314 the third phase of work on the church of Santa Maria in Porto Fuori was completed under the recent priory of Guglielmo da Polenta, who subsequently also commissioned the entire cycle of frescoes. He also provided for completing that extraordinary artistic flowering Rinaldo da Concorezzo, archbishop of Ravenna from 1303 to 1321. Rinaldo was one of the eminent ecclesiastical personalities of the time and not only for its notable legal culture. During his stay in the Chair of Ravenna he was inquisitor of the Templars and promoter of some councils in support of the reform of ecclesiastical customs. He carried out work in the cathedral, building or re-adapting a nave of the Ursiana basilica.
Frescoes by the Rimini artists of Giotto’s school
Guido Novello
The judgment of historians on Guido Novello has become clearer over time and in a not exactly benevolent way: if he had not granted hospitality to Dante, his name, like many others belonging to the feudal or noble families of Romagna, would have soon been forgotten or ignored. And regarding the hospitality granted to Dante and the three questions debated for so long, namely: when Dante came to Ravenna, why he came and what hospitality Guido granted him, let it be permitted in this still image to summarize in a synthetic manner the theses that to all ‘today they appear the most correct and convincing.
Dante’s presence in Ravenna is certainly linked to the consolidation of the Da Polenta lordship and in particular to Guido Novello who succeeded Lamberto in the office of podestà in 1316. With him the Polenta family reached its greatest fortunes and took on clearer characteristics of a noble court. If until then the Da Polentas had exclusively practiced the arts of power, the new lord, a scholar and poet, revived and enriched the court environment by promoting culture, encouraging poetry, the arts and courtly and chivalric customs. Ravenna then welcomes foreign writers and artists and Dante, an exile in Verona, accepts the invitation of hospitality addressed to him by Guido Novello “to continue and put an end to Paradise”.
When did Dante come to Ravenna? Corrado Ricci deserves the credit of having irrefutably established that Dante came to Ravenna during the period of Guido Novello’s podestà, probably in 1317. The city that hosts him, the landscape and its history find space several times in the Comedy. In particular, the Paradise celebrates two illustrious people from Ravenna, Romualdo and Pier Damiani and shines with lights and gold certainly inspired by the mosaics of the ancient basilicas.
For what reason did Dante come to Ravenna? Augusto Torre proposed a thesis in 1958 that has gained strength among Dante scholars, in the light of Alighieri’s relationship with the Lord of Verona; namely that he had been sent to Ravenna by Cangrande della Scala (due to Verona’s interest in Cervia salt) to strengthen and encourage the resistance of Guido Novello and Ravenna against the claims of the Venetians.
What welcome did Dante find in Ravenna? Boccaccio tells it as a spontaneous invitation from Guido who guesses Dante’s need and his prompt acceptance, that is, the concurrence of two desires towards the same end. His version is probably a little too embellished, but certainly true in substance: a very favorable reception given to the Poet. Guido’s admiration for Dante was also manifested on the occasion of the funeral narrated by Boccaccio: “The magnanimous Knight adorned Dante’s dead body with poetic ornaments on a funeral bed; and had him carried on the shoulders of his most solemn citizens, up to the place of the Friars Minor in Ravenna, with that honor which he considered worthy of such a body, until there almost with public singing followed him, in a stone ark, in which it still lies, he had it placed. And he returned to the house in which Dante had previously lived, according to the Ravignano custom himself, so as to commend the high knowledge and virtue of the deceased. And yes, to console his friends, whom he left in a very bitter life, he gave an ornate and long sermon…”.
One might think that Boccaccio has once again embellished the story, but the substance cannot fail to correspond since the news came to him from an eyewitness, Pietro Giardini who, even exaggerating, could not invent such detailed circumstances.
Giovanni Mochi, Dante Alighieri presents Giotto to Guido Novello da Polenta
DANTE RESUSCITATED BY PIETRO BEMBO
Silvio Bernicoli in “Il Giornale Dantesco” XXX / I 1921 writes: “Dante, once Guido Novello is dead, known and exalted more abroad than here, will not be recalled anywhere else with epigraphs and effigies; he will be left, or perhaps tolerated out of a certain sense of piety that considered him equal to the others buried, in a modest place on the property of the Friars Minor, confused throughout the 14th century with the many other marble arches that stood at the sides of the door of the Convent Franciscan and in the 15th century his tomb was found enclosed together with many others in a small cloister and remained there until 1483. In this year the Republic of Venice and evidently for it Bembo, will have brought back to light the One whom the papacy had wanted damn to perpetual humiliation and oblivion.”
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