Tip: move over the painting to use the lens.
Beata Beatrix
Dante Gabriel Rossetti · 1871–72
Is love a poppy's gentle whisper in the wilderness?
- Artist
- Dante Gabriel Rossetti (English, 1828–1882)
- Date
- 1871–72
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Size
- 87.5 × 69.3 cm (34 7/16 × 27 1/4 in.); Predella: 26.5 × 69.2 cm (10 7/16 × 27 1/4 in.); Framed: 156.2 × 102.9 cm (61 1/2
- Made in
- England
- Style
- Pre-Raphaelite
- Where to see it
- Art Institute of Chicago
Charles L. Hutchinson Collection · CC0 Public Domain · Art Institute of Chicago · image via Wikimedia Commons · see it at the museum ↗
The story
The painting draws parallels between Dante's love for Beatrice and Rossetti's own affection for his wife and muse, Elizabeth Siddal.
The work is a tribute to Siddal, who died of an overdose, and features a haloed dove delivering her a white poppy.
Our perspective
Our own reading of the picture - an opinion, not a fact.
Standing in front of Beata Beatrix is like being in a dream, where love and loss are intertwined.
The painting asks us to consider the power of love and memory in shaping our lives.
Slow Look
- the woman in the wilderness her serene expression and the red flowers surrounding her
- the dove and the poppy the gentle way the dove delivers the poppy to the woman's hand
- the Ponte Vecchio and the sundial the sense of time and memory suspended in the painting
- the figures of Love and Dante the sense of longing and remembrance between them
- the frame and the quote the way the quote adds a sense of melancholy and introspection to the painting
About Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti, generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. Rossetti inspired many contemporary artists and writers, such as Algernon Charles Swinburne, William Morris, and Edward Burne-Jones. His later work also influenced the European Symbolists and was a major precursor of the Aesthetic movement.
What do you see?
Stand in front of it for a moment. Then tell us what you noticed or felt - there are no wrong answers.
Be the first to share a thought.
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