Harriet Grannis Moore, well-known San Francisco sculptor and instructor in stone and clay, created a series of paintings inspired by Dante’s “The Divine Comedy” in the 70s and early 80s. The paintings, measuring 9 feet high by 4 feet, will be accompanied by related ceramic sculpture.

Thirty years ago the noted San Francisco sculptor Harriet Moore was obsessed with Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy”. By the time she was finished (or it was finished with her), she had painted more than 20 nine-foot by 4-foot panels and completed 22 related sculptures in terracotta, bronze, and wood.

Fifteen of the panels and several sculptures (on loan from a private collector) will be shown this spring in “Harriet Moore: The Divine Comedy”.

The exhibition opens April 18 and continues through June 27. The opening reception is scheduled for Sunday, April 18, from 1 to 4 p.m.

Dante’s poem “The Divine Comedy”, written between 1307 and 1321, has inspired countless poets, authors, and artists over the centuries and is considered to represent the beginning of modern Italian.

Botticelli and William Blake are probably the most famous of the painters so inspired; Monika Beisner recently illustrated a translation of ‘The Divine Comedy” by Robert and Jean Hollander, published in 2007.