Una filigrana neoplatonico-dantesca nel romanzo inedito di Fallacara L'occhio simile al sole

This paper is intended to verify evidence of a neoplatonic-dantesque theme in the unpublished novel by Luigi Fallacara (Bari, 1890 – Florence, 1963) L’occhio simile al sole, written between 1945 and 1946, the title of which is a quotation from the Enneads by Plotinus. Underlying events involving Riccardo Marini, a Florentine painter who is the alter ego of the author and in love with Valeria Crini, an apparently vacuous and superficial woman-angel, is a clearly plotinian-dantesque model, primarily relating to the concepts of Beauty, Love and Unity. Reference to the works of Dante, and particularly to the XXXIII verse of Paradiso, are numerous and both implicit and explicit, some of which emerged from a study of notes for the novel. The artist’s ambition is a return to Paradise lost, the subject-matter of a painting by Riccardo, through the union between contemplator and contemplated, in the splendour of eternal light. The love for the worldly Dora Reken, an intermediary between the two lovers, will lead him to the celestial Venus, Valeria, whose face will be used as the face of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary painted by Riccardo in his masterpiece.