The thirteenth-century Italian poet Dante Alighieri was a boy of nine when he first set eyes on Beatrice, ‘the glorious lady of his heart’. Beatrice died when she was twenty-four and Dante wrote a series of love poems, the Vita Nuova, expressing his feelings for her. The Italian sculptor Alfredo Biagini has carved Beatrice as an expression of ideal beauty and virtue, rather than as a portrait of a real woman. The smooth finish of the marble enhances his idealised vision while the frieze on the base of the sculpture tells the story of Dante’s intense love for Beatrice.
(Storytellers, November 2010)

J A Redpath bequest, 1975
Marble
75/32
Circa 1914

Collection tags

friezes (ornamental bands), headscarves, love, People, white (color), women, wreaths (costume accessories)