Beata Beatrix
- Artist: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
- Date: c.1864–70
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 864 x 660 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
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About this artwork
This is the “Beata Beatrix” by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, painted around 1864–70 in oil on canvas. The picture is a dreamlike portrait of Elizabeth Siddal, Rossetti’s wife and muse, cast in the role of Beatrice Portinari from Dante’s *Vita Nuova*. In the scene Siddal stands in a Florentine setting, her hands open and lips slightly apart, as if awaiting a divine communion.
Rossetti layers symbolic detail to hint at her death and his own grief. A white dove, the Holy Spirit, hovers above her, holding a poppy—an emblem of death and also a nod to Siddal’s own suicide by laudanum. In the background, the ghostly figure of Dante watches the angelic Love holding a flame of life, while a sundial casts a shadow over the number nine, marking the hour of her passing. The distant Ponte Vecchio frames the whole, grounding the scene in Florence where Dante wrote of Beatrice’s love.
This work exemplifies Rossetti’s pre‑Raphaelite fascination with medieval themes and symbolic storytelling, turning personal loss into a transcendent, almost mystical vision.
See it in person
Beata Beatrix is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
