Portrait of Beatrice, Dante's beloved. In the works of Dante

One of the most famous poets, scientists, philosophers and politicians, the author of the “Divine Comedy”, which still amazes his contemporaries, the great Durante degli Alighieri, better known to the world as Dante, was born in 1265 in Florence. His parents did not stand out in any way from the rest of the townspeople and were not rich, but they were able to raise funds and pay for their son’s schooling. From an early age, he was fond of poetry and composed poems that were full of romantic images and admiration for the beauty of nature, the best sides of the people around him and the charm of young women.

When Dante was nine years old, an amazing meeting took place in his life with a little girl, his age. They collided on the threshold of the church, and for an instant their eyes met. Only a second passed, the girl immediately lowered her eyes and quickly walked past, but this was enough for the romantic boy to passionately fall in love with the stranger. Only after some time did he learn that the girl was the daughter of a rich and noble Florentine Folco Portinari, and her name was most likely Bice. However, the future poet gave her the melodious and tender name Beatrice.

Many years later, in a work that Dante called “New Life,” he described his first meeting with his beloved: “She appeared to me dressed in the noblest scarlet color ... girded and dressed in a manner befitting her very young age.” The girl seemed to the impressionable child to be a real lady, who combined the most virtuous traits: innocence, nobility, kindness. Since then, little Dante dedicated poems only to her, and in them he praised the beauty and charm of Beatrice.

Years passed, and Bice Portinari turned from a little girl into a charming creature, spoiled by her parents, a little mocking and impudent. Dante did not at all strive to seek new meetings with his beloved, and he accidentally learned about her life from acquaintances. The second meeting took place nine years later, when a young man was walking along a narrow Florentine street and saw a beautiful girl walking towards him. With a sinking heart, Dante recognized his beloved in the young beauty, who, as he passed by, as it seemed to him, slightly lowered her head and smiled slightly. Overwhelmed with happiness, the young man lived from now on for this moment and, under the impression, wrote the first sonnet dedicated to his beloved. From that day on, he longed to see Beatrice again.

Their next meeting took place at a celebration dedicated to the wedding of mutual friends, but this day did not bring anything to the poet in love except bitter suffering and tears. Always self-confident, Alighieri suddenly became embarrassed when he saw his beloved among his acquaintances. He could not utter a word, and when he came to his senses a little, he said something incoherent and absurd. Seeing the embarrassment of the young man, not taking his eyes off her, the lovely girl began to make fun of the uncertain guest and ridicule him along with her friends. That evening, the inconsolable young man finally decided never to seek a date with the beautiful Beatrice and devote his life only to singing his love for Signorina Portinari. The poet never saw her again.

However, the feeling for his beloved has not changed. Alighieri still loved her so passionately that all other women did not exist for him. Nevertheless, he still got married, although he did not hide the fact that he took this step without love. The poet's wife was the beautiful Italian Gemma Donati.

Beatrice married the wealthy Signor Simon de Bardi, and a few years later she died unexpectedly. She was not even twenty-five years old. This happened in the summer of 1290, after which Dante, broken by grief, vowed to devote all his work to the memory of his beloved.

Marriage to an unloved wife did not bring comfort. Life with Gemma soon began to weigh so heavily on the poet that he began to spend less time at home and devoted himself entirely to politics. At that time, there were constant clashes in Florence between the parties of black and white Guelphs. The former were supporters of papal power in the territory of Florence, while the latter opposed it. Dante, who shared the views of the “whites,” soon joined this party and began to fight for the independence of his native city. At that time he was barely thirty years old.

When a split occurred in the party to which the great poet belonged, and after Charles Valois came to power, the black Guelphs gained the upper hand, Dante was accused of treason and intrigue against the church, after which he was put on trial. The accused was deprived of all the high ranks that he had previously held in Florence, imposed a large fine and expelled from his hometown. Alighieri took the latter most painfully and was never able to return to his homeland until the end of his life. From that day on, his many years of wandering around the country began.

Seventeen years after the death of Beatrice, Dante finally began writing his greatest work, The Divine Comedy, to the creation of which he devoted fourteen long years. “Comedy” was written in a simple, uncomplicated language, which, according to Alighieri himself, “is spoken by women.” In this poem, the author wanted not only to help people understand the secrets of life after death and overcome the eternal fear of the unknown, but also to glorify the Great Feminine Principle, which the poet raised to the heights through the image of his beloved Beatrice.

In The Divine Comedy, his beloved, who has long departed from the earthly world, meets Dante and guides him through different spheres of the world - starting from the lowest, where sinners are tormented, reaching the high, divine part, where Beatrice herself lives.

She, who left without fully knowing worldly life, helps to reveal to the poet the entire philosophical meaning of life and death, to show the most unknown aspects of the afterlife, all the horrors of hell and the miracles that are performed by the Lord on the highest peaks of the world, called paradise.

Until the end of his days, Dante Alighieri wrote only about Beatrice, praising his love for her, glorifying and exalting his beloved. “The Divine Comedy” still amazes contemporaries with its deep philosophical meaning, and the name of the beloved author of the poem remains immortal forever.

Dante spent the last years of his life in Ravenna, where he was buried in 1321. Many years later, the authorities of Florence declared the poet and philosopher an honorary resident of their city, wishing to return his ashes to their homeland. However, in Ravenna they refused to fulfill the wishes of the Florentines, who once expelled the great Dante and for the rest of his life deprived him of the opportunity to walk through the narrow streets of the city, where he once met his only lover, Beatrice Portinari.

Dante's romantic nature began to appear from a very young age. The meeting, which forever determined the nature of his poetry, occurred when the future founder of the Italian literary language was only 9 years old. Beatrice Portinari was a year younger. They encountered each other on the threshold of the church and exchanged glances for a moment. This time was enough for little Dante to fall in love with the stranger with all his heart. As Dante himself later recalled, “love took possession of his heart to such an extent that he did not have the strength to resist it and, trembling with excitement, he heard a secret voice: “Here is a deity who is stronger than you and will rule over you.” And so it happened. Beatrice became the poet's permanent muse. He praised her, and not anyone else, in all his works. A teacher at the Faculty of Journalism at Moscow State University, Doctor of Philology, Elena Nikolaevna Kornilova, believes that there is nothing strange in the fact that Dante fell in love at the age of 9.

“Don't be surprised by these numbers. The fact is that for Dante the number 3, trinity, that is, trinity is a kind of mystical symbol, and three times three is nine. So at this very moment he meets his lifelong lover. But she is a creature, in principle, inaccessible to him, because they have a difference in social status. Dante is a nobleman, but he was not rich, and her parents were very rich. And if you go to Florence today, you will see that the Portinari bank exists there. This bank, accordingly, belonged to her father at one time.”

Years passed, and Beatrice grew from a little girl into a beautiful girl. Dante lived and worked in the hope of seeing his beloved again. And such a case was not long in coming. At a celebration dedicated to the wedding of mutual friends, Beatrice appeared before the poet in a white robe, surrounded by friends. The poet’s self-confidence failed. And instead of confessing, he said something incoherent. The beauty turned out to be cruel. She did not hesitate to make fun of the young man in front of everyone. Realizing that besides suffering, conversations with Signorina Portinari would give him nothing, Alighieri decided to never see her again. But he did not stop secretly sighing for his Goddess and drawing her image in his works. We will learn more about this from the President of the Society for the Propagation of Italian Culture named after Dante Alighieri in St. Petersburg, Marina Sergeevna Samarina.

“This youthful love of his influenced all of his work; he lived quite a long time by medieval standards, a little over 50 years old, it was a long life. And throughout his entire career, he sang her praises.”

However, both Dante and Beatrice found legitimate life partners. The poet's wife was the beautiful Italian Gemma Donati, and his muse married the rich Signor Simon de Bardi. Nothing changed in Dante’s soul: his heart still belonged to Beatrice. However, the poet’s beloved died unexpectedly at the age of 22. Alighiere was shocked. He decided to tell the world his love story, reflecting it in the short story “New Life”. More about this – Doctor of Philology Elena Kornilova.

“The fact that he never confessed his feelings to her is completely obvious. And indeed, in “New Life” there is an episode where he says that he looked at Beatrice in church, but pretended to look at the lady who was sitting between them, because he was afraid to put her in some difficult position . As he writes himself, he managed to deceive everyone around him. Not only did he never confess his love to Beatrice, but he was also afraid to come close to her.”

Only seventeen years after the death of Beatrice, Dante began writing one of his most famous works, The Divine Comedy. Of course, the image of his beloved Beatrice occupies an important place in this work. It is she, living in Paradise, who will be destined to meet the literary prototype of the poet, show him different spheres of the world and ultimately lead him to the high, divine part. Thus, Dante forever immortalized the name of his beloved. She forever remained the most important woman in Dante's life. The story of this pure, platonic love of the great genius of literature, which helped him create, is reflected in world culture. Alighieri's feelings, passed through the centuries, were noted in painting, music, poetry and drama. They were sung by the Russian poet Nikolai Gumilyov, British Pre-Raphaelite artists, including Henry Holiday, Marie Stillman, John Waterhouse, Lithuanian director Eimuntas Nyakrosius and many others. The president of the Dante Alighieri Society, Marina Samarina, evaluates the contribution of this love story to literature as follows:

“This became a model for many poets and writers for many centuries. Sublime platonic love for a young creature who died very early. Images of love from afar are very common. Not only in Italian literature, but in European literature, world literature. If we go very far, then Edgar also has such a theme.”

Dante's works, written at the turn of the 13th-14th centuries, remain relevant today. And this is not surprising. They reflected all the strength of the poet’s feelings, because according to Alighiere, he had no other teacher except himself and the most powerful mentor - love.

Probably many people know or have at least heard about Dante Alighieri and his immortal work “The Divine Comedy”. Nowadays, Dante has gained popularity among many people thanks to Dan Brown's work "Inferno" and the film based on this novel. "The Divine Comedy", in fact, is the pinnacle of Dante's work and the greatest creation of all European medieval literature. But few people know how this magnificent work appeared, for whom it was written and how it is connected with Dante’s life. In this article you will find answers to all these questions and more. Let's start with Dante's biography, because it contains the answer to one of the questions raised above.

Biography

Dante's ancestors were not ordinary people. According to legend, they were among those who founded Florence. Dante himself was born in the same city in May 1265. The exact date of his birth has not been established due to lack of data. The place of study of the talented writer and poet is unknown, but it is known that he received extensive knowledge in literature, natural science and religion. His first mentor, according to historians, was Brunetto Latini, a famous Italian scientist and poet at that time. Researchers suggest that in 1286-1287 Dante studied at a very famous and high-status institution of that time - the University of Bologna.

Deciding to prove himself as a public figure, Alighieri actively participated in the life of Florence at the end of the 13th century and in 1301 received the title of prior - a fairly high title at that time. However, already in 1302, he, together with the White Guelph party he created, was expelled from Florence. By the way, he also died in exile, never seeing his hometown again. During these difficult years, Dante became interested in lyrics. And what were the first works of this great poet, and what was their fate, we will now tell you.

Early works

By that time, Dante already had the work La Vita Nuova ("New life"). But the next two treatises were never completed. Among them is "The Feast" - a kind of commentary and interpretation of the canzones. Dante loved his native language and with all his being constantly fought for its development. That is why the treatise “On the People's Language” was born, written by the poet in Latin. The fate of "The Feast" awaited him: it was also not finished. After Alighieri abandoned work on these works, his mind and time were occupied by a new work - “The Divine Comedy”. Let's talk about it in more detail now.

"The Divine Comedy"

Dante began work on this poem, dedicated to Beatrice Portinari, while in exile. It consists of three parts, called cantics: “Hell”, “Purgatory”, and “Paradise”. By the way, Dante finished writing the last of them shortly before his death and still managed to finish the work. Each cantika includes several songs consisting of terzas. Interesting fact: there are exactly 100 songs in The Divine Comedy, and there are thirty-three of them in each part, and another one is made as an introduction.

We talked about Dante's life, his works, but we missed the most important thing: the one for whom he wrote the Divine Comedy. The biography of this Italian poet is a story of love to the grave, unrequited and tragic.

Dante and Beatrice Portinari

Dante's personal life was connected with only one woman. He met her when he was still a boy - he was nine years old. At a holiday in the city, he saw his neighbor’s eight-year-old daughter, whose name was Beatrice. Dante truly fell in love with her when, nine years later, he met her as a married girl. tormented the poet, and even seven years after the death of Beatrice Portinari, he did not forget about her. Several centuries later, the name of Dante and his beloved became a symbol of unrequited true platonic love.

Beatrice Portinare, whose biography is known only thanks to Dante's love for her, ends tragically: she dies at the age of twenty-four. However, this does not mean that the great Italian poet stopped loving her. Although he entered into a marriage of convenience, he loved only her all his life until his death. Dante was somewhat shy and, being in love with Beatrice, spoke to her only twice in his entire life. These contacts cannot even be called conversations: having met on the street, Beatrice Portinari and Dante simply said hello. After this, the poet, inspired by the thought that the love of his life had paid attention to him, ran home, where he had a dream that would become one of the fragments of “New Life.” The first conversation between Dante Alighieri and Beatrice Portinari took place when they were still children and met for the first time at a festival in Florence.

Dante saw his beloved many more times, but he was never able to talk to her. To prevent Beatrice from finding out about his feelings, the poet often paid attention to other ladies, which at some point offended his beloved. It was because of this that she later stopped talking to him.

Beatrice's fate

She was born into a wealthy family: her father, Folco de Portinari, was a famous Florentine banker, her mother also came from the Bardi family of bankers who gave loans to popes and kings. Besides her, there were 5 more daughters in the family, which is not surprising for medieval Europe. As can be judged from the surviving information, the life of Biche, as her friends and Dante affectionately called her, was very stormy. At twenty-one, she married an influential banker from her mother’s family, Simone dei Bardi. Three years later, Beatrice died. There are several versions of her death. One of them says that Dante’s beloved died in childbirth, and the other says that her death is associated with illness. A couple of years after the death of Beatrice, Dante married for convenience to a woman from the aristocratic Italian family of Donati.

Influence on Dante

Beatrice Portinari, whose portrait you can see below, was somewhat different from the one described by Dante. In his works, he was inclined to idealize her image, turning her into a goddess whom he worshiped. After the death of Beatrice Portinari, Dante, photos of whose portraits you can see below, was depressed for a very long time. His family feared that the poet might commit suicide, he suffered so much. Eventually, Dante's psychological crisis ended, and he began to write La Vie Nueva, inspired by various works written by authors who had experienced the loss of the woman they loved.

Role in art

The name Beatrice Portinari has been preserved in history and has become known to this day only thanks to Dante. In his works it appears very often and in different forms. And this applies not only to the Divine Comedy, but to other works: for example, in the New Life and sonnets written to his friends. Beatrice also found her embodiment in the works of other authors, including Russians: Nikolai Gumilyov, Konstantin Balmont, Valery Bryusov.

Marriage of Beatrice Portinari

Contrary to the love of the great poet, his beloved was in no hurry to show reciprocal signs of attention. Since she came from a noble family, she was destined to marry a wealthy member of her mother’s family, Simone de Bardi. It is unknown whether she was happy or not. One can only guess about this. By the way, when Dante saw Beatrice Portinari for the second time in his life, seven years after their meeting, when they were children, she was not yet married.

We cannot say for sure whether Dante could have been closer to Beatrice, or whether she should have remained his only and most dear platonic love until the end of his life. In any case, both the life and death of Beatrice had a great influence on the culture of Italy in general, and on the Italian poet in particular. The death of the great poet is also associated with suffering after the death of his beloved woman. And with good reason. Let's figure out why.

Death of Dante

A couple of years after Beatrice died, her secret admirer married for convenience to a woman from the aristocratic Donati family. Dante wrote all the time after this event and until his death. All the works that came from his pen were certainly dedicated to Beatrice Portinari alone. Dante's biography ends so quickly and swiftly that you can't even believe it. In 1316-1317, the great poet settled in Ravenna, arriving there at the invitation of Signor Guido da Polenta. Appointed ambassador of Ravenna to conclude a truce with the Republic of St. Mark, Dante travels to Venice. The negotiations ended successfully, but on the way back the poet contracted malaria and died before reaching Ravenna. Undoubtedly, the death of the great poet is inextricably linked with the death of Beatrice Portinari. You can see Dante's photo below.

Signor Guido da Polenta promised to build a luxurious mausoleum in honor of Dante, but for reasons unknown to us he did not do it. The tomb of the great Italian poet was erected only in 1780. Interesting fact: the portrait depicted on Boccaccio's tomb is somewhat unreliable. It depicts Dante with a thick beard, whereas in real life he always kept a clean shave.

Many paintings were written based on Dante's works. Among the most famous is “The Map of Hell” (La mappa dell inferno) by Sandro Botticelli. Contemporary writer Dan Brown described in his own way the messages of transhumanist Bertrand Zobrist encrypted in this picture. By the way, in the work described above, almost the entire plot is tied to the “Divine Comedy” and its modern interpretation.

Eugene Delacroix, a French painter, fascinated by the fate of Dante and Beatrice Portinari, whose portrait, unfortunately, has not survived, painted the painting “Dante’s Boat,” which also gained worldwide fame.

The influence of Dante and Russian writers and poets did not pass by. For example, Anna Akhmatova has several poems that are in one way or another connected with Beatrice Portinari and Dante. The influence of the Italian writer on the Russian poet Nikolai Gumilyov, who also used the image of Dante the Exile in his work, is observed. Below you can see the painting “Dante’s Boat”, which depicts the poet’s journey to Hell. This is the very beginning of the Divine Comedy.

Conclusion

Surely everyone who was imbued with the life and feelings of Dante now feels a slight (and maybe even heavy) sadness. Indeed, the story that happened between Beatrice Portinari and Dante Alighieri is impossible to invent. This drama, so simple and insignificant in its details, at first creates a false impression of the unnaturalness of love and the meaninglessness of suffering. But having thought better, we understand that the main thing in all this is those feelings that the great Italian poet sang to his beloved Beatrice Portinari. Dante, whose portraits at different stages of his life you could see in our article, became part of world history and a symbol of true love, which is so lacking in the modern world.

Officially, the church, built back in 1032, is called St. Margaret, but since the Renaissance the whole world knows it under a different name - the Church of Dante and Beatrice. Here the future great poet, at the age of 9, first saw his muse Beatrice, here he admired her beauty at every mass, here he saw her for the last time, who passed away at the age of 24, here his soul and heart still live.

The church is modest, very different from the great churches of Florence, even on the ceilings there are almost no frescoes, not to mention the walls - gray stone and here and there modern children's drawings dedicated to the great feeling of Dante Alighieri. In the silence, organ music is barely audible. And two tombstones, which are always full of people. The first tombstone of Gemma Donati, Dante’s wife, with whom he was married, by the way, in the same temple. The couple never confessed their love to each other, and lived almost their entire lives away from each other - Gemma did not follow Dante into exile from Florence. At this tombstone, tourists freeze for a few moments just to take a photograph of the historical object, and then hurry on.

Many candles are always burning on this tombstone, like the sun in the grayish twilight of an ancient temple. There is a basket by the stove, always filled with notes. Altar of unrealistic, extraordinary and eternal love. The ashes of Beatrice Portinari rest here.

What kind of wish can you make in such a romantic place, even if it is permeated with aching sadness? Only connected with love, especially unrequited love, the kind that really requires the intervention of concerned higher powers. Each letter left in a basket at Beatrice’s grave contains a love story worthy of the lines of great novels and poems, and necessarily a request for patronage. They ask to help Beatrice, and not Dante, his portraits on the walls of the church look too harsh. And his beloved can work miracles, this is known to everyone who has read The Divine Comedy - it was she who led the poet from Hell to Paradise, acting as a protector and guiding star. What to write in a note? There are no special rules, but judging by the volume of messages, the unhappy lovers first describe the story, and then formulate a request.

Those who are lucky in love, do not disturb Beatrice, she helps only those who suffer, who do not have the opportunity, like the great Dante, to be with their beloved.

Why did Beatrice Portinari die?

1. From sexual oversaturation.
2. Creators and Muses
   Beatrice
   ZhZL-Dante
   the link is blocked by decision of the project administration

   But nowhere is it written what she died from...

3. This is not reported anywhere. In general, the reality of Beatrice’s existence as a person, and not as an image of an ideal abstract lover, is only evidenced by the fact that in La Vie Nueva Dante mentions how he saw Monna Bice walking with some other woman. A small household detail - everything else is too sublime.
   I would venture to suggest that she could have died in childbirth (a common cause of death for young women at that time) or during a plague epidemic
4. Beatrice Portina (Italian: Beatrice Portinari, real name Bice di Folco Portinari; 12661290) is a woman from Florence, the secret lover of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri. Was his first love. Very little is known about Beatrice's life, and even what information is available is partly disputed.

   Dante's love for Beatrice is closely connected with his love for poetry; in his works, Dante idealized his love for Beatrice. Beatrice was the daughter of a respected citizen of Florence, Folco de Portinari, who was a neighbor of the Alighieri themselves.

   Dante first saw Beatrice in 1274, when he was 9 years old (she was 8). It was at a May festival in Florence, Dante reports about this in his first work La Vita nuova. From this first meeting and first love, Dante was left with impressions for the rest of his life, which only intensified in the future.

   Beatrice died quite early, she was only 24 years old. Dante nevertheless married a year or two after the death of Beatrice (the date is given as 1291) to Donna Gemma from the aristocratic Donati family; it was a business marriage, a marriage of convenience, as was then customary.

   The cause of death is not stated anywhere.

5. This appears to be unknown.
   The name of Beatrice Portinari is known to us only thanks to Dante, and he might not have known about the specific cause of her death: they lived in different cities and did not communicate.

   Beatrice Portinari (12661290)