Lyric Gestures Between Written and Visual Poetry: Lamberto Pignotti's New Vita Nova

While the transmedia reception of Dante's Commedia in a globalizing world is immediately visible, his lyric poetry might at first seem unsuited to the digital age. This article explores Lamberto Pignotti's 2016 re-creation of Dante's Vita Nova in his New Vita Nova, focusing on how, by engaging with Dante's libello in both verbal and visual terms, the Florentine artist and poet, one of the fathers of visual poetry, emphasizes three aspects which are latent in the medieval text: its nature as a language game, the fusion of traditionally separate aesthetic domains, and the “virtuality” of lyric gestures. Digital technology, in fact, seems to allow for the full realization of the “virtualissimo amore” that Pignotti sees enacted in the libello, and Pignotti's verbo-visual re-creation prompts reflection on how lyric gestures can move through different media.