The Facts
Uffizi Galleries will lend six sixteenth-century drawings to "Go Nagai – Sun, Heart and Steel", an exhibition dedicated to the Japanese manga creator at Lucca Comics & Games, running October 28–November 1, 2026, at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Lucca. Five of the drawings are illustrations of Dante's Divine Comedy by Federico Zuccari, created between 1586 and 1588, including scenes of the City of Dis and Lucifer; the sixth is a copy of Michelangelo's Damned Soul attributed to Francesco Salviati. The works will be shown alongside Go Nagai's 1990s manga illustrations of the Inferno, inspired by Gustave Doré's nineteenth-century engravings. The display marks the first time these Renaissance drawings and Nagai's manga are juxtaposed thematically, as part of a cultural partnership between Lucca Comics & Games and the Uffizi.
The Signal
For a festival audience, the loan signals the Uffizi's willingness to place Old Master drawings in pop-culture contexts, a strategy that reframes canonical works through contemporary fandom. For collectors and curators, the pairing underscores how Dante's visual iconography persists across media and centuries, and could draw new attention to Zuccari's rarely seen series and the market for Mannerist drawings.
- Artists: Go Nagai, Federico Zuccari, Francesco Salviati, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Gustave Doré
- Museums: Uffizi Galleries
- Locations: Lucca
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