Dante's Dream

Rossetti wasn't just illustrating Dante here — he was named after him. His father was a Dante scholar living in exile, and the son grew up steeped in La Vita Nuova, the poet's book about his love for Beatrice and her early death. This scene shows Dante led in a dream to Beatrice's deathbed. By 1871, when Rossetti finished it, he had buried his own wife, Elizabeth Siddal, nearly ten years before, and the model for the dead Beatrice was Jane Morris, the wife of his friend William Morris. It is the largest painting Rossetti ever made. The Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool bought it directly from him in 1881 for £1,575.