Bruno Menegatti
Gastwissenschaftler
Bruno Menegatti is a researcher in the Laboratory of Theory and History of Medieval Media (LATHIMM) at the University of São Paulo in Brazil. He is developing his master’s research titled “Christianizations of Classical Antiquity: Historicities of the Mural Painting of Hell in the Strozzi di Mantova Chapel (c. 1350-1357)” (2022-2025) and the online platform “NachLab”, a new digital resource for image analysis. His visiting research project is titled “Integrating Poetry: An Incorporative Approach to Poetic Reception at Santa Maria Novella in the 14th Century” and funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). Bruno holds a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts with a focus on Art History from the University of São Paulo. During this time, he developed the research project “The Materiality of the World of the Dead in the Iconographic Representations of Attic Ceramics from the Classical Period” (2017-2019) as a researcher at the Research Group on Mortuary Practices in the Ancient Mediterranean (TAPHOS), also funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation and awarded an honorable mention at the 26th SIICUSP (2018).
Integrating Poetry: An Incorporative Approach to Poetic Reception at Santa Maria Novella in the 14th Century
This project seeks to map and analyze both textual and visual evidence of the reception and circulation of ancient, vernacular, and non-Christian poetic works among the Dominican friars of the convent and church of Santa Maria Novella during the 14th Century. Central to this inquiry is the painting of Inferno in the Cappella Strozzi di Mantova, a part of the fresco cycle depicting the Last Judgment, created by Dominicans in the 1350s. This painting has long been interpreted as the most faithful representation of Dante’s Inferno from the period, often regarded less as an ornamental feature of the chapel and more as a direct illustration of the poem. Such readings, however, have reinforced a decontextualized understanding of the chapel’s entire decorative program, overlooking the Dominican theological perspectives and the broader social context that informed its creation. Adopting an expanded analytical scope, this project examines both the visual culture that defined the ornamentation of Santa Maria Novella and the textual sources produced by Dominican friars in the 14th Century, revealing how ancient, vernacular, and pagan poetry was appropriated, censured, or visually integrated by the friars, shaping Dominican theological interpretations and homiletical messages. Ultimately, this approach provides a more nuanced understanding of the cultural and intellectual milieu that contextualized the chapel’s ornamentation.