Dante Gabriel RossettiAngleterre, 1828–1882Beata Beatrix
Peut-on la contempler ?
Inconnu
National Gallery
Londres, Royaume-Uni
Le propriétaire est connu ; on ignore si l’œuvre est exposée aujourd’hui.
- Dans cet état depuis
- Source
- Le musée
À propos du tableau
Beata Beatrix est une huile sur toile du peintre préraphaélite Dante Gabriel Rossetti, terminée en 1872. C'est le portrait de Béatrice Portinari, du poème Vita Nuova de Dante Alighieri, au moment de son dernier soupir. Rossetti y représente Beatrice sous les traits de son épouse défunte Elizabeth Siddal, sa muse.
Dans une lettre de 1873 à son ami William Morris, Rossetti confie son intention: « non la représentation du moment de la mort de Beatrice, mais celle de son idéal, symbolisé par une transe ou une transfiguration spirituelle soudaine. »
Lire la suite
L'œuvre est exposée à la Tate Britain de Londres. Ce tableau est le premier d'un diptyque, le second Beata Beatrix est moins connu: peint dix ans après la mort d'Elizabeth et toujours inachevé à la mort du peintre, il fut achevé fidèlement par Ford Madox Brown, un ami proche de la confrérie. Cette seconde peinture est exposée à Birmingham, en Angleterre.
Notice
- Numéro d’inventaire
- NG1279
Au catalogue
Sources
- Wikidata
- Image : National Gallery — Dante Gabriel Rossetti · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Pendant ce temps, chez Dante Gabriel Rossetti
La vie entière1869–1874
Kelmscott Manor: a summer house and a retreat
In 1869 Morris and Rossetti rented Kelmscott Manor at Kelmscott, Oxfordshire, as a summer home, but it became a retreat for Rossetti and Jane Morris: they spent summers there with the Morrises’ children while William Morris travelled to Iceland in 1871 and 1873.
1870
The 1870 “Poems”
In 1870 Rossetti published the volume “Poems by D. G. Rossetti,” collating the recovered texts and some translations, such as his 1869 “Ballad of Dead Ladies” after Villon; the word “yesteryear” is credited to Rossetti as a neologism used for the first time in this translation.
1871
Love for Jane Morris
In 1871 Rossetti fell in love again — with Jane, the wife of his friend William Morris; they became lovers, and Jane sat for him often.
October 1871 – May 1872
Buchanan’s attack: the “fleshly school of poetry”
In October 1871 Robert Buchanan attacked both Rossetti’s poems and his morality in The Contemporary Review; against the advice of his brother William Michael, Rossetti issued a written reply in December, and in May 1872 Buchanan published a 100-page pamphlet, “The Fleshly School of Poetry and Other Phenomena of the Day.”
June – September 1872
The breakdown of 1872: laudanum and Scotland
In June 1872, after the savage criticism of his poems, Rossetti suffered a mental breakdown in which he attempted unsuccessfully to kill himself with an overdose of laudanum. He spent nine weeks recuperating in Scotland and in September joined Jane Morris at Kelmscott, but spent his days in a haze of chloral and whisky.
1874
Morris cuts Rossetti out of the firm
In 1874 Morris reorganised his decorative arts firm, cutting Rossetti out of the business, and the polite fiction that both men were in residence with Jane at Kelmscott could no longer be maintained.
