Beatrice Portinari
Beatrice "Bice" di Folco Portinari[1] (Italian: [beaˈtriːtʃe portiˈnaːri]; 1265 – 8 or 19 June 1290) was an Italian woman who has been commonly identified as the principal inspiration for Dante Alighieri's Vita Nuova, and is also identified with the Beatrice who acts as his guide in the last book of his narrative poem the Divine Comedy (La Divina Commedia), Paradiso, and during the conclusion of the preceding Purgatorio. In the Comedy, Beatrice symbolises divine grace and theology.
Beatrice Portinari
8 or 19 June 1290 (age 25)
Bice (birth name)
Inspiration for Dante Alighieri's Vita Nuova and Divine Comedy
Simone dei Bardi (m.1287)
Father: Folco di Ricovero Portinari
Biography[edit]
Beatrice was the daughter of the banker Folco Portinari and was married to another banker, Simone dei Bardi. Dante claims to have met a "Beatrice" only twice, on occasions separated by nine years, but was so affected by the meetings that he carried his love for her throughout his life. The tradition that identifies Bice di Folco Portinari as the Beatrice loved by Dante is now widely, though not unanimously, accepted by scholars. Boccaccio, in his commentary on the Divine Comedy, was the first one to explicitly refer to the woman; all later references are dependent on his unsubstantiated identification. Clear documents on her life have always been scarce, rendering even her existence doubtful. The only hard evidence is the will of Folco Portinari from 1287, which says, "Item d. Bici filie sue et uxoris d. Simonis del Bardis reliquite [...], lib.50 ad floren." The sentence is essentially a bequest to Portinari's daughter, who was married to Simone dei Bardi. Portinari was a rich banker, born in Portico di Romagna. He moved to Florence and lived in a house near Dante where he had six daughters. Portinari also gave generously to found the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova.
Legacy[edit]
Modern art[edit]
Beatrice Portinari has been immortalized not only in Dante's poems but in paintings by Pre-Raphaelite artists and poets in the nineteenth century.[10] Subjects taken from Dante Alighieri's La Vita Nuova, especially the idealization of Beatrice, inspired a great deal of Dante Gabriel Rossetti's art in the 1850s, in particular after the death of his wife Elizabeth Siddal. He idealized her image as Dante's Beatrice in a number of paintings, such as Beata Beatrix.[11]
