Portrait of Six Tuscan Poets, by Giorgio Vasari, 1544

Portrait of Six Tuscan Poets, by Giorgio Vasari, 1544

In this group portrait, six distinguished poets and philosophers of the 13th and 14th centuries are shown as if engaged in a literary conversation. The seated figure is Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), author of the Divine Comedy. Over his right shoulder is Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-75), author of the Decameron. The standing figure in clerical garb is the humanist, classical scholar and poet laureate Francesco Petrarch (1304-74). Also depicted are Guido Cavalcanti (about 1255-1300), acclaimed for his love sonnets, Guittone d'Arezzo (1230-94) and Cino da Pistoia (1270-1336), two of the earliest writers of Italian lyric poetry. The objects on the table represent various scholarly disciplines. The solar quadrant and celestial globe denote astronomy and astrology; the compass and terrestrial globe, geometry and geography; the books, grammar and rhetoric.

Source/Citation:

Giorgio Vasari: Portrait of Six Tuscan Poets. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts Collection via Artstor

Courtesy of Columbia University.