Probably, many people know or at least heard about Dante Alighieri and his immortal work "The Divine Comedy". In our time, Dante gained popularity among many people thanks to the work of Dan Brown "Inferno" and the film based on this novel. "The 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 is connected with the life of Dante. In this article, you will find answers to all these questions and even more. And we will start with Dante's biography, because it contains the answer to one of the questions raised above.
Biography
Dante's ancestors were not ordinary people. According to legend, they were among 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 training of a talented writer and poet is unknown, but it is known that he received extensive knowledge in literature, natural science and religion. His first mentor, according to historians, was Brunetto Latini, a well-known Italian scientist and poet at that time. Researchers assume that in 1286-1287 Dante studied at a very famous and status institution of that 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, never seeing his native city again. 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 La Vita Nuova ("New Life"). But the next two treatises were never completed. Among them, "Feast" is a kind of commentary and interpretation to the canzones. Dante loved his native language and with all his nature constantly fought for its development. That is why the treatise "On the Folk Language" was born, written by the poet in Latin. The fate of "Feast" awaited him: he was also not finished. After Alighieri abandoned work on these works, his mind and time were occupied by a new work - The Divine Comedy. Let's talk about it in more detail now.
Divine Comedy
Work on this poem, dedicated to Beatrice Portinari, Dante began while in exile. It consists of three parts, called canticles: "Hell","Purgatory", and "Paradise". By the way, Dante wrote the last of them shortly before his death and still managed to finish the work. Each canticle includes several songs consisting of tercina. Interesting fact: there are exactly 100 songs in the Divine Comedy, and there are thirty-three of them in each part, and one more was 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, unrequited 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 celebration in the city, he saw the neighbor's eight-year-old daughter, whose name was Beatrice. Dante truly fell in love with her when, nine years later, he met her already a married girl. Unrequited love tormented the poet, and even seven years after the death of Beatrice Portinari, he did not forget about her. Already several centuries later, the name of Dante and his beloved became a symbol of unrequited true platonic love.
Beatrice Portinare, whose biography is known only because of Dante's love for her, ends tragically: she dies at the age of twenty-four. However, this does not mean that the great Italian poet stopped loving her. Although he entered into a marriage of convenience, he loved only her all his life until his death. Dante was somewhat shy and, being in love with Beatrice, spoke to her only twice in his entire life. These cannot be namedcontacts even by conversation: 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 had paid attention to him, ran home, where he had a dream that would become one of the fragments of the New Life. The very first conversation between Dante Alighieri and Beatrice Portinari took place when they were still children and first met at a celebration in Florence.
Many more times Dante saw his beloved, but he could not talk to her. To prevent Beatrice from finding out about his feelings, the poet often paid attention to other ladies, which at some point offended his beloved. It was because of this that she later stopped talking to him.
The fate of Beatrice
She was born into a we althy family: her father, Folco de Portinari, was a famous Florentine banker, her mother also came from a family of Bardi bankers who gave loans to popes and kings. In addition to her, the family had 5 more daughters, which is not surprising for medieval Europe. As can be judged from 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 family, Simone dei Bardi. Beatrice died three years later. There are several versions of her death. One of them says that Dante's beloved died during childbirth, and the other says that her death is associated with an illness. A couple of years after the death of Beatrice, Dante married a woman from an aristocratic Italian family. Donati.
Influence on Dante
Beatrice Portinari, whose portrait you can see below, was somewhat different from the one described by Dante. In his works, he was inclined to idealize her image, turning her into the goddess he worshiped. After the death of Beatrice Portinari, Dante, whose photo of portraits you can see below, was depressed for a very long time. His relatives feared that the poet might 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 a beloved woman.
Role in art
The name of Beatrice Portinari has been preserved in history and has become known to this day only thanks to Dante. In his works, she appears very often and in different forms. And this applies not only to the Divine Comedy, but to other works: for example, in the New Life and the sonnets written by his friends. Beatrice also found her embodiment in the works of other authors, including Russian ones: Nikolai Gumilyov, Konstantin Balmont, Valery Bryusov.
Marriage of Beatrice Portinari
Despite the love of the great poet, his beloved was in no hurry to show signs of attention in return. Since she came from a noble family, she was destined to marry a we althy member of her mother's family, Simone de Bardi. It is unknown if she was happy or not. Aboutthis can only be guessed at. By the way, when Dante saw Beatrice Portinari for the second time in his life, seven years after they met, when they were children, she was not yet married.
We cannot say for sure whether Dante could have been closer to Beatrice, or whether she should have remained the only and dearest platonic love for the rest of his life. In any case, both the life and death of Beatrice had a great influence on the culture of Italy in general, and on the Italian poet in particular. Including the death of the great poet is associated with suffering after the death of a beloved woman. And not unreasonably. Let's see why.
Dante's death
A couple of years after Beatrice died, her secret admirer married a woman from the aristocratic Donati family. All the time after this event and until his death, Dante wrote. All the works that came out from under his pen were certainly dedicated to one Beatrice Portinari. Dante's biography ends so quickly and swiftly that one can't even believe it. In 1316-1317, the great poet settled in the Italian city of Ravenna, arriving there at the invitation of Signor Guido da Polenta. Appointed as the ambassador of Ravenna to conclude a truce with the Republic of St. Mark, Dante travels to Venice. The negotiations ended successfully, but on the way back the poet contracted malaria and died before reaching Ravenna. Undoubtedly, the death of the great poet is inextricably linked with the death of Beatrice Portinari. You can see a photo of Dante's death mask below.
Signor Guido da Polenta promised to build a magnificent mausoleum in honor ofDante, however, for reasons unknown to us, did not do so. The tomb of the great Italian poet was erected only in 1780. An 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
A lot of paintings have been written based on the works of Dante. Among the most famous is the "Map of Hell" (La mappa dell inferno) by Sandro Botticelli. Modern writer Dan Brown in his novel "Inferno" described the messages of the transhumanist Bertrand Zobrist encrypted in this picture. By the way, in the above work, almost the entire plot is tied to the "Divine Comedy" and its modern interpretation.
Eugène Delacroix, a French painter, fascinated by the fate of Dante and Beatrice Portinari, whose portrait, unfortunately, has not been preserved, painted the painting "Dante's Boat", which also gained worldwide fame.
The influence of Dante and Russian writers and poets did not pass by. For example, Anna Akhmatova has several poems connected in one way or another with Beatrice Portinari and Dante. There is an influence of the Italian writer on the Russian poet Nikolai Gumilyov, who also used the image of Dante the exile in his work. Below you can just see the painting "Dante's Boat", which depicts the poet's journey to Hell. This is the very beginning of the Divine Comedy.
Conclusion
Surely everyone who was imbued with the life and feelings of Dante now feels a slight (and maybe heavy) sadness. Indeed, the story that happened between Beatrice Portinari and Dante Alighieri is impossible to imagine. This drama, so simple and insignificant in its details, at first creates a false impression of the unnaturalness of love and the meaninglessness of suffering. But having thought better, we understand that the main thing in all this is the feelings that the great Italian poet sang for 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.
