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And the Beata Beatrix A Vision of Beatrice: Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the Beata Beatrix Dante Gabriel Rossetti was entranced w lth he was christened. This is a mistake. No the theme of love. It was the dominant sub­ doubt our father's Dantesque studies ject in his poetry and painting, and it colored saturated the household with wafts and his interpretation of literature. Nowhere is rumours of the mighty Alighiert; therefore this more apparent than in his attitude the child breathed Dante (so to speak), towards the works of Dante Alighieri. Rosset­ but did not think Dante, nor lay him to ti's translations of the Florentine poet, as well heart. Dante Alighieri was a sort of as his paintings based on subjects from Banshee in the Charlotte Street houses; Dante, all express the idea that romantic love his shriek audible even tofamiliarity, but is the equivalent of spiritual salvation.l the message of it not scrutintzed.4 The supreme example of Rossetti's per­ sonal interpretation of Dante is the painting Young Rossetti preferred the writings of Sir Beata Beatrtx. It was begun as a tribute to Walter Scott and similar tales of romantic his wife who died by her own hand in 1862.2 adventure, but by age sixteen he began to Beata Beatrix is the most compelling of all translate the poetry of his namesake and the his works in its autobiographical association; empathy he felt was immediate. In 1848, the it also marks the attainment of his own year he first modified his name, he completed theoretical standards. The history of this his English translation of La Vita Nuova. His painting (in the Tate Gallery and a replica of interpretation, seemingly untouched by his it in the Art Institute of Chicago) reveals the father's complex and speculative analyses, depth of Rossetti's identification with Dante was highly colored by his adolescent con­ and the inevitable failure of his Dantean cepts of romantic love. To Rossetti, La Vita dream. Nuova was a love story. He believed that Rossetti's familiarity with Dante can be Dante was reborn at the sight of Beatrice, traced to his childhood. His.father, Gabriele whom he understood to be the ultimate sym­ Pasquale Rossetti-an expatriate Abruzz­ bol of love; so he broke with tradition by ese-was a Dante scholar who sought to translating "nuova" as "new," rather than discover hidden meanings in the work of the "early," suggesting that life devoted to love medieval poet.3 When his first son was born was a distinct realm of being.5 in 1828, he named him Charles Gabriel Rossetti also explored the meaning of La Dante, honoring the infant's godfather Vita Nuova in his early work as a painter. Charles Lyell, a translator of Dante, as well The first study for The Salutation ofBeatrtce as the object of his studies. By 1848, the (Fogg Art Museum), drawn in 1849, express­ youth dropped the name Charles, and sign­ ed Rossetti's idea that Beatrice, or ideal love, ed his correspondence Gabriel Dante. In the was beyond mortal attainment. Dante is de­ following year, he became Dante Gabriel, giv­ picted meeting Beatrice twice. On the left, ing primary significance to the name he she passes through the streets of Florence, deemed most important. and when Dante greets her, she returns the The artist's brother William has recorded gesture, but continues on her way. On the that, as a youth, Rossetti betrayed little in­ right, as described in The Divine Comedy, terest in Dante: Dante and Beatrice meet in Paradise. As Beatrice approaches, she raises her veil, It has often been said by writers who revealing that Beatrice will accept Dante's know nothing very definite about the love only after his earthly existence. Between matter that Dante Rossetti was, from these Vignettes, Rossetti placed a figure of childhood or early boyhood, a devoted ad­ Love holding a sundial, which marks the mirer of the stupendous poet after whom hour of Beatrice's death, and a torch, signi- 76 THE JOURNAL OF PRE-RAPHAELITE STUDIES .
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