It is difficult to fill your mind with positive thoughts when the world is still fighting against a global pandemic, but we have to make an effort and find inspiration in beauty to go on with our lives. Art, as usual, helps, so for today let's get inspired by the ethereal beauty of Matelda gathering flowers in Albert Maignan's "Dante meets Matelda", that moves from the Canto 28 of the Purgatory in the Divine Comedy.
The painting is inspired by Dante's encounter with Matelda in the terrestrial paradise at the top of the island-mountain of Purgatory. Matelda tells Dante that he is in the Garden of Eden and guides him through ritual bathings in the rivers Lethe and Eunoe.
Dante's Matelda symbolises the beauty and innocence of the terrestrial paradise and the poet compares Matelda to classical goddesses Proserpina (Persephone) and Venus as well as the pagan priestess Hero. In the painting Matelda is portrayed as she gathers flowers, so she seems the perfect image to celebrate the arrival of Spring and the themes of renewal and rebirth.
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