Beata Beatrix — Dante Gabriel Rossetti

ABOUT THIS WORK

A woman with flowing red hair sits in a trance-like state, bathed in an otherworldly glow. This painting, titled "Beata Beatrix" or "Blessed Beatrice," depicts Beatrice Portinari from Dante Alighieri's 13th-century poem, "La Vita Nuova," at the moment of her death. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who had translated the poem, modeled Beatrice after his late wife, Elizabeth Siddal. Rather than a literal depiction of death, Rossetti intended the painting to be "an ideal of the subject, symbolized by a trance or sudden spiritual transfiguration." This version, left unfinished at Rossetti's death in 1882 and completed by Ford Madox Brown, shows a white dove approaching Beatrice, holding red poppies in its beak.

DETAILS

Artist: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Date: 1877
Medium: Oil on canvas
Location: Birmingham Museums Trust

ART MOVEMENTS

Aestheticism Arts and Crafts movement Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood Symbolism

LOOK CLOSER

What to Notice

Five details hide in plain sight. Pick one and we’ll show you exactly where to look.

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01

Closed eyes, raised face

Look at her tilted face, closed eyes and parted lips. She seems caught in a trance, a moment often read as a spiritual transfiguration rather than a plain death scene.

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02

The red bird and poppy

A red bird lowers a white poppy toward her hands. The poppy is often read as a reference to laudanum, the drug that killed Rossetti's wife, Elizabeth Siddal, who is linked to the figure of Beatrice.

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03

The sundial shadow

On the ledge behind her, a sundial casts its shadow across a gold disc. The inscriptions in the frame point to the date of Beatrice's death, so the dial can be read as marking that moment.

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04

Love in the background

Far back on the left, a haloed figure in red stands in the garden. On the right, a dark figure stands near a well. They are usually identified as Love and Dante, small but central to the story.

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05

The meeting in paradise

In the small panel below, Dante kneels with open hands before Beatrice in a flowering garden, as angels look on. It shows the reunion that follows her death.

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THE ARTIST

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

1828–1882 · United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, blended poetry and painting to create evocative, symbolic works like "Beata Beatrix."

Read Rossetti’s full story