Данте и Беатриче

Henry Holiday wanted this scene to be exactly right, so in 1881 he went to Florence to get the setting from life. The moment comes from Dante's own account of his love for Beatrice. Here she walks along the Arno with two companions, and having heard gossip about Dante she refuses to greet him, passing him by, while he stands to the side stricken. Holiday found that the medieval riverside walk had changed, so he researched how it looked in the 13th century and rebuilt it in the picture, the Ponte Vecchio behind, the old stonework, the flowers and pavement all set down with almost archaeological care. Painted in 1883 and bought by the gallery in Liverpool the next year, it is the work Holiday is remembered for. Beatrice, in white and gold, never once looks at the man watching her go.