Beatrice Portinari Gallery

Beata Beatrix, c1864-1870, (c1912). Artist: Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Beata Beatrix, c1864-1870, (c1912). Painting in the Tate Gallery, London. Rossetti explores his own grief at the death of his wife Elizabeth Siddal, who died in 1862, and the despair of Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) at the death of his beloved Beatrix (Beatrice). British poet, illustrator, painter and translator Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. Rossetti drew extensively on medieval influences, and particularly the work of his namesake, the Italian writer and poet Dante Alighieri. He married his model Elizabeth Siddal who sat for ‘Beata Beatrix, painted a year after her death. He later became a founding partner in the decorative arts firm, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co, developing a relationship with William Morris wife Jane who became one of his ‘muses'. Illustration from Rossetti - Masterpieces in Colour, by Lucien Pissarro. [TC & EC Jack, Frederick A Stokes Co, London & New York, c1912]

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