Probably, many people know, or at least have heard of Dante Alighieri and his immortal work, The Divine Comedy. Nowadays, Dante has gained popularity among many people thanks to Dan Brown's Inferno and the film based on this novel. "Divine Comedy", in fact, is the pinnacle of Dante's work and the greatest creation of all European medieval literature. But few people know how this magnificent work appeared, for whom it was written and how it relates to Dante’s life. In this article you will find answers to all these questions and more. And we will start with the biography of Dante, because in it lies the answer to one of the questions voiced above.
Biography
Dante's ancestors were not ordinary people. According to legend, they were one of those who founded Florence. Dante himself was born in the same city in May 1265. The exact date of his birth has not been established due to lack of data. The place of study of the talented writer and poet is unknown, but it is known that he received extensive knowledge in literature, science and religion. His first mentor, according to historians, was Brunetto Latini - the then famous Italian scholar and poet. Researchers suggest that in 1286-1287, Dante studied at a very famous and status institution of the time - the University of Bologna.
Deciding to prove himself as a public figure, Alighieri at the end of the 13th century actively participated in the life of Florence and in 1301 received the title of Prior - at that time a rather high title. However, already in 1302, he, together with the party of white Guelphs he created, was expelled from Florence. By the way, he also died in exile, having never seen his hometown anymore. In these difficult years, Dante became interested in lyrics. And what were the first works of this great poet, and what was their fate, we will now tell.
Early works
By that time, Dante already had a work by La Vita Nuova ("New Life"). But the next two treatises were never completed. Among them, "Feast" is a kind of commentary and interpretation of the Canzon. Dante loved his native language and with all his nature constantly fought for its development. That is why the treatise "On the national language", written by the poet in Latin, was born. He was waiting for the fate of "Feast": he was also not finished. After Alighieri abandoned work on these works, his mind and time took a new work - "Divine Comedy." We’ll talk about it in more detail now.
"The Divine Comedy"
Work on this poem dedicated to Beatrice Portinari, Dante began, being in exile. It consists of three parts called cantics: Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. By the way, Dante finished the last of them shortly before his death and still managed to finish the work. Each cantica includes several songs consisting of tercines. An interesting fact: in the “Divine Comedy” there are exactly 100 songs, and in each part there are thirty-three, and another one is made as an introduction.
We talked about the life of Dante, his works, but missed the most important thing: the one for whom he wrote "The Divine Comedy." The biography of this Italian poet is a love story to the grave, inseparable and tragic.
Dante and Beatrice Portinari
Dante's personal life was associated with only one woman. He met her, while still a boy - he was nine years old. At a holiday in the city, he saw an eight-year-old daughter of a neighbor, whose name was Beatrice. Dante really fell in love with her when, after nine years, he met her as a married girl. Unrequited love tormented the poet, and even seven years after the death of Beatrice Portinari, he did not forget about her. After several centuries, the name of Dante and his lover became a symbol of unrequited true platonic love.
Beatrice Portinare, whose biography is known only because of Dante's love for her, tragically ends: she dies at the age of twenty-four. However, this does not mean that the great Italian poet ceased to love her. Although he married by calculation, but all his life until his death he loved only her. Dante was somewhat shy and, in love with Beatrice, spoke to her only two times in his life. You can’t even call these contacts conversations: having met on the street, Beatrice Portinari and Dante simply said hello. After that, the poet, inspired by the thought that the love of his life paid attention to him, ran home, where he had a dream, which would become one of the fragments of the New Life. The very first conversation between Dante Alighieri and Beatrice Portinari occurred when they were still children and first met at a celebration in Florence.
Many times, Dante saw his lover, but he could not talk to her. So that Beatrice would not know about his feelings, the poet often paid attention to other ladies, which at some point caused an insult to his beloved. It was because of this that she later stopped talking to him.
The fate of Beatrice
She was born into a wealthy family: her father, Folco de Portinari, was a famous Florentine banker, and her mother also came from a family of bankers Bardi, who gave loans to the popes and kings. In addition to her, the family had 5 more daughters, which is not surprising for medieval Europe. As can be judged by the surviving information, the life of Bice, as her friends and Dante affectionately called her, proceeded very rapidly. At twenty-one, she married an influential banker from her mother’s clan, Simone dei Bardi. Three years later, Beatrice died. There are several versions of her death. One of them says that beloved Dante died during childbirth, and the other - that her death is associated with the disease. A few years after the death of Beatrice, Dante married according to the calculation to a woman from the aristocratic Italian clan Donati.
Impact on Dante
Beatrice Portinari, whose portrait you can see below, was slightly different from that described by Dante. In his works, he was inclined to idealize her image, turning into the goddess whom he worshiped. After the death of Beatrice Portinari Dante, the photo of the portraits of which you can see below, was depressed for a very long time. His relatives feared that the poet could commit suicide, he suffered so much. In the end, Dante’s psychological crisis ended and he began to write New Life, inspired by various works written by authors who survived the loss of their beloved woman.
Role in art
The name Beatrice Portinari is preserved in history and has become known to this day only thanks to Dante. In his works, she appears very often in various forms. And this applies not only to the "Divine Comedy", but to other works: for example, in The New Life and sonnets written by his friends. Beatrice also found her embodiment in the works of other authors, including Russians: Nikolai Gumilyov, Konstantin Balmont, Valery Bryusov.
Marriage of Beatrice Portinari
Despite the love of the great poet, his beloved was in no hurry to provide reciprocal attention. Since she came from a noble family, she was destined to marry at the expense of the rich member of her mother’s family, Simone de Bardi. It is not known whether she was happy or not. One can only guess about this. By the way, when Dante saw Beatrice Portinari for the second time in her life, seven years after they met when they were children, she was not yet married.
We cannot say for sure if Dante could be closer to Beatrice, or if she should remain the only and most dear Platonic love until the end of his life. In any case, both the life and death of Beatrice had a great influence on the culture of Italy as a whole, and on the Italian poet separately. Including the death of the great poet is associated with suffering after the death of a beloved woman. And not without reason. Let’s figure out why.
Death of Dante
A couple of years after Beatrice died, her secret admirer married at the cost of a woman from the aristocratic clan Donati. All the time after this event and until his death, Dante wrote. All the works that came out from under his pen were certainly devoted to Beatrice Portinari alone. Dante's biography breaks off so quickly and swiftly that one does not even believe in it. In the years 1316-1317, the great poet settled in the Italian city of Ravenna, having arrived there at the invitation of Signor Guido da Polenta. Appointed by the Ambassador of Ravenna to conclude a truce with the Republic of St. Mark, Dante travels to Venice. Negotiations ended successfully, but on the way back the poet contracted malaria and died without reaching Ravenna. Undoubtedly, the death of the great poet is inextricably linked with the death of Beatrice Portinari. Photo of the death mask of Dante, you can see a little lower.
Signor Guido da Polenta promised to build a magnificent mausoleum in honor of Dante, but for reasons unknown to us he did not. The tomb of the great Italian poet was erected only in 1780. Interesting fact: the portrait depicted on the tomb of Boccaccio is somewhat unreliable. On it, Dante is depicted with a thick beard, while in real life he always shaved smoothly.
Interesting Facts
Based on the works of Dante, many paintings were painted. Among the most famous is the "Map of Hell" (La mappa dell inferno) by Sandro Botticelli. The modern writer Dan Brown in his novel "Inferno" described the messages encrypted in this picture by the transhumanist Bertrand Zobrist. By the way, in the above work, almost the entire plot is tied to the "Divine Comedy" and its modern interpretation.
Eugene Delacroix, a French painter, mesmerized by the fate of Dante and Beatrice Portinari, whose portrait, unfortunately, has not been preserved, painted the painting "Rook Dante", which also gained worldwide fame.
Not spared the influence of Dante and Russian writers and poets. For example, Anna Akhmatova has several poems, one way or another connected with Beatrice Portinari and Dante. The influence of the Italian writer on the Russian poet Nikolai Gumilyov, who also used the image of Dante the exile in his work, is also observed. Below you can see the picture "Rook Dante", which depicts the poet's journey to Hell. This is the very beginning of the Divine Comedy.
Conclusion
Surely everyone who is imbued with life and feelings of Dante, now feels a light (and maybe even heavy) sadness. Indeed, the story that happened between Beatrice Portinari and Dante Alighieri cannot be invented. This drama, so simple and insignificant in its details, first creates a false impression of the unnaturalness of love and the meaninglessness of suffering. But thinking better, we understand that the main thing in all this is those feelings that the great Italian poet sang to his beloved Beatrice Portinari. Dante, whose portraits at different stages of his life you could see in our article, has become a part of world history and a symbol of true love, which is so lacking in the modern world.