Santa Croce Church
Dante's cenotaph is the City of Florence's first official monument to the poet. The cenotaph was paid for by a public funding initiative signed by some of the leading players on the Florentine cultural scene at the time. The artist chosen to carve the cenotaph was Stefano Ricci, one of the most important Tuscan sculptors of his day who had already worked in Santa Croce but had never previously turned his hand to something so monumental. The cenotaph had a difficult gestation, the sculptor preparing numerous designs before finally achieving a definitive version and then taking over ten years to produce it. It was inaugurated on 24 March 1830. Dante, dressed in classical garb and crowned with a laurel wreath, is seated deep in thought high above the centre of the composition, his arm resting on the Divine Comedy. Two female figures accompany the sarcophagus. On the left, Italy stands erect sporting a crown of towers and walls, while on the right weeping Poetry drapes herself over the tomb.
