![At the Theatre, La Loge by Pierre-August Renoir, 1874, oil on canvas. Lady seated in a theatre box, holding a pink rose, a gentleman is seated beside her looking through a pair of binoculars, at the theatre book clubs](https://sp-ao.shortpixel.ai/client/to_auto,q_glossy,ret_img,w_300,h_383/https://livingpaintings.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Book-Clubs-At-the-Theatre-La-Loge-Pierre-August-Renoir-Courtauld-Gallery-300x383.jpg)
![Album 1 The first collection of paintings from the National Gallery, Arnolfini Marriage by Jan van Eyck, 1434, oil on oak. Portrait of a wealthy couple holding hands in their bedchamber. The man on the left wears a long black gown and large brimmed top hat the lady on the right wears a fine green gown and frilled white veil. A small dog stands by her feet.](https://sp-ao.shortpixel.ai/client/to_auto,q_glossy,ret_img,w_300,h_230/https://livingpaintings.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Album-1-The-First-Collection-of-Paintings-from-The-National-Gallery-Arnolfini-Marriage-300x230.jpg)
Suitable for: Book Clubs
Sponsored by: May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust
Available braille grades:
Beata Beatrix is an iconic Pre-Raphaelite painting and the tragedy of Lizzie Siddell, lover and muse of Rossetti, is desperately romantic. Harold’s heroic death is one of the first history lessons we learn – 1066 and all that! His love for Edith Swan-Neck, his mistress, is not so well known. Folklore has it that Edith walked through the carnage of the battle field and identified Harold by marks on his body known only to her. There is a moving statue in St Leonards-on-Sea, Hastings, of Harold lying on his back and the figure of Edith hunched over him, holding up his head towards her face.
The art of 'Beatrix' depicts the dying moments of a young and beautiful woman. She sits with eyes closed, head raised in a trance-like pose, her open hands rest upon her lap and a sacred dove drops into them a white poppy. A sundial is at her side. This young woman is the Beatrice worshipped from afar by the 13th Century poet, Dante and in his poem 'Vita Nuova' he recounts the story of his all consuming love for this woman, the daughter of a prominent Florentine citizen.
The two small figures in the painting's background represent Dante gazing towards a beautiful red robed figure - Love.
Rossetti, a major figure in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, was not only a painter, he was also a poet, and before the age of 20 had spent several years translating the cycle of poems and commentary that made up Dante's 'Vita Nuova'.
Beata Beatrix painted by Dante Gabriel Rossetti in 1860-70
The Death of Harold, Bayeux Tapestry
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