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DATE: 3 July 1897 NAME:Lady Mar and Kellie with Lord Kenyon REF:1458 & 1396 SITTER: Lady Mar and Kellie with Lord Kenyon
Some background information on the role of Beatrice
CONTENTS BEATRICE - BIOGRAPHY DANTE/BEATRICE RELATIONSHIP CAVALCANTI - BIO DETAILS CAVALCANTE - DANTE'S TEACHER AND INFLUENCE ITEM: CANTATA - LONDON - 1795 ITEM: OPERA - MILAN - 1852 ITEM: SONG by Ciro Pinsuti - 1864 ITEM: OPERA - VERONA - 1865 ITEM: SONG by Luigi Luzzi, 1869 ITEM: SONG - CHAUMET - 1877 ITEM: MELODIA - 1886 ITEM: OPERA - LONDON - 1889 ITEM: OPERA - PHILPOT - LONDON - 1889 ITEM: PHILPOT OPERA - DETAILS ITEM: OPERA - GODARD - PARIS - 1890 ITEM: GODARD OPERA - DETAILS ILLUSTRATIONS OF DANTE'S COMMEDIA DIVINA EXHIBITS BIBLIOGRAPHY
Beatrice, the woman to whom the great Italian poet dedicated most of his poetry and almost all of his life, from his first sight of her as a child when he himself was nine ('from that time forward, Love quite governed my soul') to his death in 1321. He glorified her in La Divina Commedia, or The Divine Comedy, which he completed 40 years after he first saw her and more than 20 years after her death. Beatrice is usually identified as Beatrice Portinari, the daughter of a noble Florentine family, who married Simone de' Bardi and died at the age of 24 on June 8, 1290.
Dante wrote a chronicle of his relationship with her in La Vita Nuova (composed in c. 1293: recent English translation The New Life 1969) a prose work interlaced with lyrics, Dante tells of his meetings with her, praises her beauty and goodness ('My lady looks so gentle and so pure/When yielding salutation by the way...*), describes his intense reactions to her kindness or lack of it, tells of events in both their lives, and explains the nature of his feelings for her. La Vita Nuova also tells of the day that Dante was informed of her death and contains several anguished poems written after that event. In the final chapter of La Vita Nuova, Dante vows to write nothing further of Beatrice until he writes 'concerning her what hath not before been written of any woman' -the promise of his Divine Comedy.
The promise is fulfilled in La Divina Commedia, which he composed many years later, expressing his exalted and spiritual love for Beatrice,who is his intercessor through APurgatorio,2 and his guide through 'Paradiso'. At first sight of her, in 'Purgatorio' (XXX, 31 ff*), he is as overwhelmed as he was at the age of nine, and he is dazzled by her presence throughout the journey, until she ascends again to her place in heaven. This expression of sublimated and spiritualized love ends with Dante's total absorption in the divine.
Canto XXX 31 ff That, under a mantle green, a Lady came
And my spirit,which since so long ago
By occult power that seemed from her to move -
CAVALCANTI, GUIDO, an Italian poet and philosopher of the 13th century, who died in 1300. He was the son of a philosopher whom Dante, in the Inferno, condemns to torment among the Epicureans and Atheists; but he himself was a friend of the great poet. By marriage with the daughter of Farinata Uberti, he became head of the Ghibellines; and when the people, weary of continual brawls, aroused themselves and sought peace by banishing the leaders of the rival parties, he was sent to Sarzana, where he caught a fever, of which he died. Cavalcanti has left a number of love sonnets and canzoni, which were honoured by the praise of Dante. Some are simple and graceful, but many are spoiled by a mixture of metaphysics borrowed from Plato, Aristotle, and the Christian Fathers. They are mostly in honour of a French lady, whom he calls Mandetta. His Canzone d'Amore was extremelypopular, and was frequently published; and his complete poetical works are contained in Giunti's collection, Florence, 1527, Venice, 1531-2. He also wrote in proseon philosophy and oratory.
CAVALCANTE - DANTE'S TEACHER AND INFLUENCE
For Dante, in the years of his literary apprenticeship, two masters stood out above all the others: Brunetto Latini and Guido Cavalcanti... Beside the 'paternal image' of Brunetto, Dante was influenced by the circle of Florentine poets who worked in the wake of the Sicilian school and of Guido d'Arezzo. It was the poetry and friendship of Guido Cavalcanti, however, that most influenced the concrete development of Dante's art. Having reached his majority ('t the age of 18) being fathereless and being about to take Gemma Donati as his wife (he had been betrothed to her since 1277) in about 1285, Dante sent Cavalcanti a sonnet, 'To Every Captive Soul and Gentle Heart'. It was the sonnet that appeared nearly ten years later in the opening of the Vita Nuova, which was dedicated to Cavalcanti. Dante's first poetic expeience thus grew out of schemes set forth by the Sicilian school and by Guitone. And then under Cavalcanti's influence, accents of acute distress and tormentedlove appeared beside the light, graceful tones of certain ballate, in new, more dramatic forms. Dante's poetry later acquired a marked individuality, and in the so-called rhymes of praise for Beatrice, his ideal lady, the poet distinguishes his own style from the model of traditional love poetry, fully developing the lesson of Guinizzelli (the master of his own masters) and transcending itwith the canzone, or lyric('Ladies who have understanding of Love'). This canzone was a true poetic manifesto of the Stil Nuovo, the 'new style'. Under the stimulus of new ideas and that of rhymes of praise, Dante became the champion of a kind of love poetry connected with his value of the beauty of Beatrice as a mystic analogue and revelation of the divine. (This cultural attigude towards women as a means of metaphysical knowledge of the divine sustains the masterly poetry of the third book of The Divine Commedy, the Paradiso.) And he pursuaded himself of the need to renounce every hope of and desire for concrete amorous recompense. These achievements foreshadowed the beginnings of Dante's ideological clash (later expressed in literary and political terms) with Guido Cavalcanti and resulted in their separation. {For bibliography see pp 485-6}
ITEM: CANTATA - LONDON - 1795
{A short cantata to words by Dante - Gli occhi dolenti per pietà hanno di lagrimar sofferta pena:...}
ITEM: SONG by Ciro Pinsuti - 1864
Quattro poeti italiani. 1. Beatrice 2. Laura 3. Ginevra 4. La Rosa
Number 1. Sonetto by Dante Alighieri
ITEM: SONG by Luigi Luzzi, 1869 SOURCE: Luzzi, Luigi*., Quattro Melodie per Canto con accompanimento di pianoforte, Milan, 1869 {BM H1775 V (36)} See Number 2 - Beatrice, opus 256. A setting of
* Enciclopedia della Musica. Luzzi, Luigi, 28 iii 1828 - 26 ii 1876 - Dopo aver studiato all'università, si dedicò alla musica, divenendo insegnante di buona fama. {Trans. RH: After he studied at university, he dedicated himself to music, becoming a teacher of some reknown.}
* Grove, 1904. Campana, Fabio, b 1815 Bologna, d. London 1882. In early life he produced several operas with more or less success.... he then settled in London (c 1850) where he was well known as a teacher of singing, and a composer, principally of Italian songs, some of which were successful. (Heading: Dante: Div. Com. Int. Conte V)
ITEM: OPERA - PHILPOT - LONDON - 1889
1889. Philpot: Dante and Beatrice. 25 November, London, Gresham Hall (Brixton). Text by W.J. Miller. Three Acts.
Dramatis Personae: Beatrice, Gentucca, Giovanna, Guido Cavalcanti, Giotto, A Jester, Corso Donato, Dante. Scene: Florence. Period A.D. 1290. Cet opera est fondé sur les incidents et évènements extraits de la 'Vita Nuova' de Dante.
ITEM: OPERA - GODARD - PARIS - 1890
Dante, drame lyrique en quatre actes, paroles par M. Edouard Blau, musique de Benjamin Godard, représenté à l'Opéra Comique le 13 mai 1890... les interprètes étaient Mlle Simmonnet (Béatrice)... Dante et Beatrice, opéra sérieux, musique de Carrer, représenté sur le théâtre Carcano de Milan, le 24 août 1852 Dante et Beatrice, opera seria, music by Carrer, produced at the Carcano Theatre in Milan on August 24 1852.}
ILLUSTRATIONS OF DANTE'S COMMEDIA DIVINA
Botticelli.... His chief patron was Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco, for whom... he undertook an important series of illustration for Dante's Divina Commedia. [For large-scale illustrations to DIVINA COMMEDIA, see ZEICHNUNGEN VON SANDRO BOTTICELLI ZU DANTE'S GOETTLICHER KOMEODIE NACH DEN ORIGINALISCHEN IM KUPFERSTICHKABINET ZU BERLIN, Berlin 1887, {BM 651 a.18}
[Page 46] The Arms of the Portinari
SOURCE: Costume au Théâtre, Le, No. 11 [N.D.], Paris, {BN 4yf 40} Note: Sketches for these costumes are by A. Mucha Dante. Opéra en quatre actes de M. Edouard Blau. Musique de M. Benjamin Godard. Représenté pour la première fois sur le scène de l'Opéra Comique le 13 Mai 1890.
Au dernier acte, Mlle Simonnet porte la traditionelle robe blanche.
Mr. Gilbert (Dante)
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