Archive for February, 2010
Welcome to Hell: Sand Demons of Dante’s Inferno
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s cold and snowy in many places throughout the world. So let’s think warm thoughts like warm summer sand and sandcastles. In fact, think hot. Burning hot, flames of hell hot, and mix that with sand. What do you get? Dante’s Inferno. What in hell is that? No, not the game. It is a sand sculpture opera based on the Italian classic masterpiece.
Welcome to Hell

Jesolo Lido has a theme-based sand sculpture festival each year and last summer they asked a team of 18 professional sand sculpture artists to illustrate Dante’s Inferno. More specifically, the participating artists were asked to take their inspiration for verses 1-9 of Canto III of Inferno. Dante stands at the edge of the world of damned souls and reads:
Through me is the way into the woeful city; through me is the way into eternal woe; through me is the way among the lost people. Justice moved my lofty maker: the divine Power, the supreme Wisdom and the primal Love made me. Before me were no things created, unless eternal, and I eternal last. Leave every hope, ye who enter!
The result was Hell, represented as scenes, mythological figures, and as some of the most famous characters from Dante’s Inferno.





