Oil paint on mahogany
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/dante-gabriel-rossetti-461" aria-label="More by Dante Gabriel Rossetti" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Dante Gabriel Rossetti</a>
Dantis Amor
Presented by F. Treharne James 1920
actions: postures and motions
adults
angel
arrow
astronomy
Beatrice
Bible: New Testament
birth to death
body
bow
characters
Christ
Dante, ‘La Vita Nuova’
death
head / face
Heaven
individuals: female
Judaeo-Christian imagery
literature (not Shakespeare)
literature and fiction
man
moon
mysticism
named individuals
objects
people
portraits
religion and belief
scientific and measuring
Siddal, Elizabeth Eleanor
society
standing
star
sun
sundial
transfiguration
universal religious imagery
weapons
woman
<p>This was one of three panels painted by Rossetti to decorate the upper part of a settle belonging to William Morris. The subject for all three was Dante’s <span>La Vita Nuova </span>which Rossetti translated for his own publication, <span>The Early Italian Poets </span>1861. Rossetti was fascinated by Dante’s story and saw in it a parallel with his own love for Elizabeth Siddall. <span>Dantis Amor </span>(Dante’s Love) is the central panel, symbolising Beatrice’s death, which occurred between the events depicted in the other two panels, <span>The Salutation of Beatrice in Florence </span>and <span>The Salutation in the Garden of Eden</span>.</p><p><em>Gallery label, November 2016</em></p>
painting oil paint mahogany
21 January 2002 – 21 September 2002
2002-09-21
21 January 2002 – 21 September 2002
2002-09-21
2002-01-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-01-21
Rossetti and Medievalism
Collection based display
12 July 2003 – 15 August 2004
2004-08-15
12 July 2003 – 28 September 2003
2003-09-28
2003-07-12
Art Gallery of Western Australia (Perth, Australia)
25 October 2003 – 15 February 2004
2004-02-15
2003-10-25
Dunedin Public Art Gallery (Dunedin, New Zealand)
http://www.dunedin.art.museum
14 May 2004 – 15 August 2004
2004-08-15
2004-05-14
Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville, USA)
2003-07-12
The Pre-Raphaelite Dream: Paintings and Drawings from the Tate Collection
Tate partnerships & programmes
1 October 2007 – 30 September 2008
2008-09-30
1 October 2007 – 30 September 2008
2008-09-30
2007-10-01
Manchester Art Gallery (Manchester, UK)
http://www.manchestergalleries.org
2007-10-01
Reciprocal loan for 'Millais'
Loan-out
27 February 2010 – 5 December 2010
2010-12-05
27 February 2010 – 6 June 2010
2010-06-06
2010-02-27
Museo d’Arte della città di Ravenna (Ravenna, Italy)
15 September 2010 – 5 December 2010
2010-12-05
2010-09-15
Ashmolean Museum (Oxford, UK)
http://www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/
2010-02-27
Pre-Raphelites
Loan-out
1 November 2011 – 21 October 2012
2012-10-21
1 November 2011 – 19 February 2012
2012-02-19
2011-11-01
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow, Russia)
2011-11-01
Blake Exhibition
Loan-out
12 September 2012 – 31 January 2014
2014-01-31
12 September 2012 – 13 January 2013
2013-01-13
2012-09-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
17 February 2013 – 19 May 2013
2013-05-19
2013-02-17
National Gallery of Art (Washington DC, USA)
10 June 2013 – 22 September 2013
2013-09-22
2013-06-10
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow, Russia)
25 January 2014 – 6 April 2014
2014-04-06
2014-01-25
Mori Arts Centre (Tokyo, Japan)
19 April 2014 – 13 July 2014
2014-07-13
2014-04-19
Palazzo Chiablese (Turin, Italy)
2012-09-12
Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde
Exhibition
17 February 2013 – 31 August 2014
2014-08-31
17 February 2013 – 19 May 2013
2013-05-19
2013-02-17
National Gallery of Art (Washington DC, USA)
10 June 2013 – 13 October 2013
2013-10-13
2013-06-10
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow, Russia)
25 January 2014 – 6 April 2014
2014-04-06
2014-01-25
Mori Arts Centre (Tokyo, Japan)
19 April 2014 – 13 July 2014
2014-07-13
2014-04-19
Palazzo Chiablese (Turin, Italy)
2013-02-17
Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde
Loan-out
7 August 2014 – 24 July 2022
2022-07-24
7 August 2014
2014-08-07
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2014-08-07
Gallery 9
Collection based display
6 April 2023 – 24 September 2023
2023-09-24
6 April 2023 – 24 September 2023
2023-09-24
2023-04-06
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
21 October 2023 – 28 January 2024
2024-01-28
2023-10-21
Delaware Art Museum (Wilmington, USA)
2023-04-06
The Rossettis
Exhibition
1 October 2023 – 31 January 2024
2024-01-31
1 October 2023 – 31 January 2024
2024-01-31
2023-10-01
Delaware Art Museum (Wilmington, USA)
2023-10-01
Rossetti
Loan-out
Dantis Amor
support: 749 × 813 mm
frame: 965 × 1019 × 61 mm
Presented by F. Treharne James 1920
<p>This painted <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/panel" title="Glossary definition for 'Panel'"><span>panel</span></a> decorated one of three cupboard doors that formed the upper part of a large settle belonging to William Morris (1834-96).  The subject of all three panels was Beatrice Portinari, for whom the medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) nurtured an enduring but unrequited love, as recounted in the <i>Vita Nuova</i>.  Rossetti was fascinated by Dante's story -which he translated for his own publication, <i>The Early Italian Poets</i> (1864)<i> -</i> and saw in it a parallel with his own love for Lizzie Siddal.

</p><p><i>Dantis Amor</i> (Dante's Love) is the central panel, symbolising Beatrice's death, which occurred between the events depicted in the other two panels, <i>The Salutation of Beatrice in Florence</i> and <i>The Salutation in the Garden of Eden</i> (both in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa).<br/>The settle was apparently painted dark red, which would have provided a rich setting for Rossetti's boldly schematic designs. Rossetti presented the two Salutation panels to Morris as a wedding present. The earthly Beatrice in the first panel was modelled on Morris's new wife Jane Burden, with whom Rossetti was also smitten.  The heavenly Beatrice in <i>Dantis Amor</i>, however, is modelled on Lizzie Siddal.  In this respect, the picture prefigures Rossetti's later visionary representation of Lizzie in <i>Beata Beatrix </i>(Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/rossetti-beata-beatrix-n01279" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01279</span></a>). 

</p><p>The picture is intended to depict Beatrice's death and subsequent union with Christ.  The scene is divided diagonally, with the haloed figure of Christ looking down from the top left towards Beatrice, enclosed in a crescent moon and surrounded by stars.  The central angel holds a sundial, as yet unfinished, but which, in the preparatory <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> (Birmingham City Art Gallery), indicates the number nine, the hour of Beatrice's death. In the drawing Rossetti also inscribed along the line of the diagonal the concluding words of Dante's <i>Divine Comedy</i>: 'L'AMOR QUE MVOVE IL SOLE E L'ALTRE STELLE' [the love which moves the sun and the other stars] (<i>Paradiso</i> xxxiii, l.145).  The <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> is thus intended to represent not only the death of Beatrice and her transition from earth to heaven, but the wider notion that love is the generating force of the universe.

</p><p>Despite the realistic representation of the figures, the patterned background is unusually stylised, and it has been suggested that another artist may have intervened in this section of the panel. Some areas remain unfinished; for example, the crescent moon enclosing the Head of Beatrice was to have been inscribed with lines from <i>La Vita Nuova</i>: 'QVELLA BEATA BEATRICE CHE MIRA CONTINVAMENTE NELLA FACCIA DI COLVI' [that Blessed Beatrice who continuously gazes at Him.'  The lines carry on into Christ's halo: 'QVI EST PER OMNIA SAECVLA BENEDICTVS' [Who is blessed throughout eternity].

</p><p><b>Further reading:<br/></b>Leslie Parris (ed.), <i>The Pre-Raphaelites</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1984; reprinted 1994, pp.179-80, reproduced p.180, in colour. <br/>Virginia Surtees, <i>The Paintings and Drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882): A Catalogue Raisonné</i>, 2 vols., Oxford 1971, pp.70-1, no.116, reproduced pl.172.<br/>Andrew Wilton and Robert Upstone (eds), <i>The Age of Rossetti, Burne-Jones &amp; Watts - Symbolism in Britain 1860-1910</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, pp.135-6, reproduced p.135, in colour.

</p><p>Frances Fowle<br/>December 2000</p>
Summary
2005-12-22T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>This was one of three panels painted by Rossetti to decorate the upper part of a settle belonging to William Morris. The subject for all three was Dante’s <i>La Vita Nuova </i>which Rossetti translated for his own publication, <i>The Early Italian Poets </i>1861. Rossetti was fascinated by Dante’s story and saw in it a parallel with his own love for Elizabeth Siddall. <i>Dantis Amor </i>(Dante’s Love) is the central panel, symbolising Beatrice’s death, which occurred between the events depicted in the other two panels, <i>The Salutation of Beatrice in Florence </i>and <i>The Salutation in the Garden of Eden</i>.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2016-11-15T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
actions: postures and motions adults angel arrow astronomy Beatrice Bible: New Testament birth to death body bow characters Christ Dante, ‘La Vita Nuova’ death head / face Heaven individuals: female Judaeo-Christian imagery literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) man moon mysticism named individuals objects people portraits religion and belief scientific and measuring Siddal, Elizabeth Eleanor society standing star sun sundial transfiguration universal religious imagery weapons woman