Vytautas Kalinauskas

Vytautas Kalinauskas, Illustrations for the Commedia (1987)

“Over the course of 10 years, Vytautas Kalinauskas (1928-2001) produced 21 illustrations for the Commedia – 7 per canticle. Completed in 1987, his illustration cycle appeared in the 1988 Lithuanian edition of the Commedia (trans. Aleksys Churginas). In addition to the cover image, Kalinauskas was also responsible for the flyleaves, which feature Dante’s side profile and a model of Dante’s afterlife — a sketch of hell, purgatory, and heaven that has much in common with diagrams found in early modern Dante editions.

“Kalinauskas’s Dante-inspired works were included in the artist’s retrospective at Vilnius Town Hall in 2008. An exhibition of Kalinauskas’s illustrations was held in the foyer of the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre during the Lithuanian premiere of Eimuntas Nekrošius’s play based on Inferno and Purgatorio (2012).”    –Aistė Kiltinavičiūtė

Contributed by Aistė Kiltinavičiūtė