The flower is also a reference to Siddal’s overdose from laudanum, a drug that contains opium, which is made from the poppy flower. The poppy holds several meanings: it is a symbol of passion, but also sleep and death. Unlike the white dove, a symbol of purity, the red dove can be interpreted as a symbol of passion. The red dove acts like a messenger, bringing her a poppy flower, an instrument of death. Rossetti painted Siddal as Beatrice: he depicted her not in the moment of death, but in a state that he described as a “ sudden spiritual transfiguration.” The portrait of Beatrice has a mystical and transcendental quality: she is pale and ghostly, but also sensual and ethereal. Siddal died of an overdose of laudanum, and her death was most likely a suicide. In Beata Beatrix, the artist created a parallel between the Italian poet Dante’s sorrow at the death of his beloved Beatrice, and his own biography, the death of his wife Elizabeth Siddal in 1862. Before painting Beata Beatrix, Rossetti already created numerous illustrations inspired by Dante’s poem, like The Meeting of Dante and Beatrice in Paradise (c.1854) and Dante`s Vision of Rachel and Leah (c.1855). A few years later, Rossetti translated La Vita Nouva, which appeared in 1864 as part of his publication The Early Italian Poets. Rossetti’s fascination with Dante began in the mid-1840s. 1864-1870) depicts a scene from the poem La Vita Nouva (New Life) by Italian poet Dante Alighieri.
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