The First Anniversary of the Death of Beatrice

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Date: 1849

Materials: Pen & Ink 

Inspired by Dante

This drawing was finished by Rossetti at the P. R. B. meeting on 15th May 1849 and exchanged for Millais's 'Lovers by a Rosebush'.

Rossetti returned to Dante, the medieval poet he was named after, more than twenty times for inspiration, but would rarely recapture the intensity of this first drawing.

It is possible that Rossetti intended this to be a front cover for his translation of Dante's 'Vita Nuova'.

Angular drawing

The original 1848 design is rather stiff, but the flattened angularity of the finished drawing seems appropriate to the medieval Florentine subject.

The costume of Dante's visitor (presumably Guido Cavalcanti, a fellow poet) comes directly from a plate in Camille Bonnard's 'Costume Historique' and Rossetti carefully chose costumes of the right date from a Florentine fresco.

Unrequited Love

The story describes Dante's unrequited physical love for Beatrice. Dante is interrupted at the moment of spiritual consummation - exactly the kind of understated human drama that appealed to the young Pre-Raphaelites.

A graffito on the window embrasure records the date of Beatrice's death.