As DGR told Charles Lyell in a letter of November 14, 1848, this is one of
the “series of original designs which I have commenced in
illustration of” his translation of The New Life
Correspondence
DGR projected ten further illustrations, which he outlined in his letter to
Lyell: “Ever since I have read the ‘Vita
Nuova,’ I have always borne it in mind as a work offering
admirable opportunities for pictorial illustration: a task which I am now
resolved to attempt. The other subjects which I propose treating are as
follows: 1st The first meeting of Dante and Beatrice (already commenced):
2nd The second meeting: 3rd The salutation denied: 4th Dante treated with
scorn by Beatrice at the Wedding-feast: 5th Dante questioned by the ladies:
6th Dante's dream: 7th Dante requested to write by the kinsman of Beatrice:
8th Dante perceives a lady who is observing his grief from a window: 9th
Dante's vision of the childhood of Beatrice: 10th Dante and the
pilgrims”. Only the first of these further drawings was completed, a
Dante's Dream at the Time of the Death of Beatrice
DGR made his first sketches for this work in September 1848: the Royal
Institute of British Architects has a
As with so many of DGR's subsequent 1850s pictures, this contains various
Düreresque paraphernalia. Grieve's account of the drawings' debts
to Lasinio, Millais, Giotto, and Camille Bonnard is pertinent (see
The Pre–Raphaelites, Tate 1984
In 1853 DGR made a very different version of this subject in
The picture references the scene in the
Correspondence
Art of DGR: Pre–Raphaelite Period
The Pre–Raphaelites, Tate 1984
A Catalogue Raisonné