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Lot Essay
Beatrice Portinari was the Florentine girl who represented the ideal of spiritual love for the great Italian poet Dante (1265-1321). He first met her when they were both children, she nine and he ten. When they met again nine years later, he felt 'as if intoxicated', and when she died in 1290, aged twenty-four, he almost lost his sanity. His love for her is celebrated in La Vita Nuova, published three years later, and she reappears in his masterpiece, the Divine Comedy, guiding him towards the ultimate experience of celestial bliss in heaven.
Dante dominated the intellectual life of Rossetti's father, Gabriele Rossetti, an Italian political refugee who held the post of Professor of Italian at King's College, London. The boy was named after his father's hero and he himself was obsessed with the figure of Dante, publishing translations of the Vita Nuova and other works in his Early Italian Poets (1861) and illustrating the poet's life in numerous paintings. Beata Beatrix (Tate Britain) is probably the best-known example. Conceived before the death of his wife, Elizabeth Siddal, in 1862, but not completed until a decade later, it is generally regarded as his memorial to her and their love. He himself described the picture as a symbolic representation of Beatrice's death, showing her 'rapt from Earth to Heaven' as she sits in a balcony overlooking Florence.
The picture has a haunting intensity, and it is perhaps not surprising that a number of copies exist. More than one is the work of the artist, connoisseur and dealer, Charles Fairfax Murray (1849-1919), who knew and idolised Rossetti, jealously guarded the flame of his reputation, and copied a number of his works. Though not himself an artist of great originality, Murray could sink himself in another's personality, becoming what Ruskin, who often employed him in this capacity, called 'a heaven-born copyist'.
The present version of Beata Beatrix, though unsigned, has all the hallmarks of Murray's copies, being faithful to the letter and spirit of the original and executed with considerable technical skill. He may well be the artist responsible for this highly capable record of the famous work.
Dante dominated the intellectual life of Rossetti's father, Gabriele Rossetti, an Italian political refugee who held the post of Professor of Italian at King's College, London. The boy was named after his father's hero and he himself was obsessed with the figure of Dante, publishing translations of the Vita Nuova and other works in his Early Italian Poets (1861) and illustrating the poet's life in numerous paintings. Beata Beatrix (Tate Britain) is probably the best-known example. Conceived before the death of his wife, Elizabeth Siddal, in 1862, but not completed until a decade later, it is generally regarded as his memorial to her and their love. He himself described the picture as a symbolic representation of Beatrice's death, showing her 'rapt from Earth to Heaven' as she sits in a balcony overlooking Florence.
The picture has a haunting intensity, and it is perhaps not surprising that a number of copies exist. More than one is the work of the artist, connoisseur and dealer, Charles Fairfax Murray (1849-1919), who knew and idolised Rossetti, jealously guarded the flame of his reputation, and copied a number of his works. Though not himself an artist of great originality, Murray could sink himself in another's personality, becoming what Ruskin, who often employed him in this capacity, called 'a heaven-born copyist'.
The present version of Beata Beatrix, though unsigned, has all the hallmarks of Murray's copies, being faithful to the letter and spirit of the original and executed with considerable technical skill. He may well be the artist responsible for this highly capable record of the famous work.