Bruno Leti

In The Flowery Meadow, artist Bruno Leti responds to poet Chris Wallace-Crabbe’s translation of Canto XXVIII of the Purgatorio, in which Dante reaches the summit of Mount Purgatory. Here he discovers the Earthly Paradise, the lost Garden of Eden that mankind can only return to once they quite literally rise above sin and return to a state of innocence. This in in keeping with the medieval trope of the locus amoenus – an idyllic place of physical and spiritual comfort and safety.

Leti’s stated goal was to depict how the text made him feel, rather than to illustrate it. His drawings therefore forego literal interpretation, instead relying colour and abstract line-work to evoke the lush environment, using the sketches made on hiking trips around Australia and abroad as his reference material.