In Dante's Mirror. Temptation and Warning

The National Museum in Krakow will treat the Divine Comedy as a mirror of human sins, temptations and hopes, shown in art from antiquity to the present day. The show at the Main Building will open on 27 November 2026 and run until 23 May 2027.

National Museum in Krakow on the exhibition (the museum’s own English text):

Heroes of the imagination of generations, cruel and holy, beautiful and tempting, husbands and women, mermaids and sorcerers, monks, dreamers and scientists. Sadness, joy, lust, hatred and love as seen through the eyes of artists from antiquity to the present day. The heroes and artists will be many.

We will be tempted by beauty and gold, we will listen to the declamations of Polish poets, we will experience the fascination of the Divine Comedy felt by our Romantics - Norwid and Mickiewicz - and by the seven Polish translators whose translations of the entire Comedy outdo each other in mastery.

The artists will guide us along the path of earthly life in nine scenes. Then, after honouring the ancestors, we will cross the gate of Hell. Contrary to the message of the inscription on it, we will not abandon hope and we will pass through Purgatory in order to end our journey in Paradise, as we began it, with the one “who moves the Sun and the other stars” (transl. Jarosław Mikołajewski) - Love.

What to expect

The museum does not announce a show of illustrations to the poem. It presents the exhibition as a look at human problems from a distance, with Dante as the guide through human vices and feelings. The route does follow the structure of the Comedy: first nine sections on earthly life, then a tribute to the ancestors, and after that Hell, Purgatory and Paradise.

Words will stand alongside the art. The museum promises recitations by Polish poets and a thread on the Romantics, Norwid and Mickiewicz, and on seven translators of the complete poem. It does not say whether the recitations will be recordings in the rooms or separate events.

The museum has not yet published a list of works, the number of objects or the number of rooms. Nor is it known how many works come from its own collection and how many are loans. A Radio Kraków report from January 2026 points to its scale. Covering the museum’s plans for the year, it listed an exhibition inspired by the Divine Comedy among the largest shows of the year at the Main Building.

The script was written by the show’s curator, Światosław Lenartowicz. The coordinators are Katarzyna Stolarz and Ewelina Zając, and Magdalena Bujak is responsible for the exhibition design. The museum has not yet given the time of the opening.

Context

Dante Alighieri was born in Florence in 1265 and died in Ravenna in 1321. He was a poet, philosopher and politician. According to Wikipedia, he wrote the Divine Comedy between 1307 and 1321. The poem describes the narrator’s journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise.

It has three parts of 33 cantos each, a hundred cantos with the opening one, written in terza rima, a three-line stanza. Each of the three parts ends with the word “stars”. The museum quotes the last of these lines, which closes the whole poem, in Jarosław Mikołajewski’s translation.

In Poland, real enthusiasm for Dante came with Romanticism. Mickiewicz translated passages of the Inferno and published them in 1829 as “Ugolino”, and Norwid translated the first two cantos of the Inferno. The first complete Polish translation was published by Julian Korsak in 1860.

After him, Wikipedia lists the translations by Antoni Stanisławski and Edward Porębowicz and the work of Jan Maria Michał Kowalski, Alina Świderska, Tomasz Łubieński and Agnieszka Kuciak. The most recent translation, by Jarosław Mikołajewski, came out in 2021. The museum has not yet said which seven translators the show will present.

Tickets and time

• Price: the museum has not yet published an admission price for this show. The Main Building price list gives 35 PLN regular, 25 PLN reduced and 70 PLN family for temporary shows. Not every temporary show has that price, though: the page for “The Faces of Czapski” gives 45 PLN regular and 35 PLN reduced. Before you go, check the museum’s price list and the exhibition page.
• Combined ticket: the price list includes a ticket for two temporary shows at the Main Building (50 PLN regular, 35 PLN reduced, 100 PLN family). “Citizen Cepelia”, which has its own ticket, runs here until 21 February 2027, so ask at the desk whether the combined ticket will cover both shows.
• Free Tuesday: according to the price list, it covers permanent exhibitions only. The museum does not announce that this show will be an exception.
• Hours: the Main Building is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00-18:00 (10 AM-6 PM) and closed on Mondays. The museum says these hours apply to temporary shows as well and announces changes in its news section. If you plan to visit over Christmas or Easter, check the opening hours page first.
• How long: nine sections on earthly life, then Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. Allow at least an hour and a half. “The Faces of Czapski” runs in the same building until 31 January 2027; both shows and one permanent gallery make half a day.
• Best for: readers of Dante and of Polish Romantic poetry, teachers of Polish literature and their students, and anyone who likes thematic exhibitions that set works from different eras side by side.
• Skip if: you want to get to know the work of one artist or one period. By design, the show moves from antiquity to the present.
• In English: the museum has an English page for the show, “In Dante’s mirror. Temptation and warning”, but does not say whether the wall labels will be bilingual.

What the press says

Radio Kraków (14 Jan 2026, Justyna Nowicka): a report on the museum’s plans for 2026. It lists an exhibition inspired by the Divine Comedy, with motifs of sin, war and catastrophe, among the largest shows of the year at the Main Building - link (Polish-language source).

This is the only press preview found as of 24 October 2026. No review was found before the opening.

See also

• The Faces of Czapski - in the same building until 31 January 2027, included in the branch ticket: over 50 paintings and drawings by Józef Czapski, mostly from private collections. For two months you can see both shows on the same day.
• Citizen Cepelia - the Main Building’s other large temporary show, until 21 February 2027: how a state institution shaped what “folk” looked like in Polish homes over four decades of communist rule.
• National Museum in Krakow - Main Building - museum profile: the Gallery of European Art, with over 120 objects from the 13th to the 20th century, reaches back to Dante’s time.

Tickets, opening hours, and current details are on the National Museum in Krakow website .

Museum profile: National Museum in Krakow - Main Building .