Astarte syriaca dante gabriel rossetti biography

The work known under this title was originally planned to be the central panel of a triptych that was to adorn a cabinet belonging to William Morris. The flanking panels depicted (on the left) Dante's meeting with Beatrice in Florence, recorded in the Vita Nuova chapter 3, and (on the right) Dante's meeting with Beatrice recorded in the Purgatorio Canto XXX.

The central panel was not completed, however, although DGR did finish a pen and ink drawing in which all the elements of the original conception are depicted. This drawing is now in the Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery. The unfinished oil on panel is in the Tate Gallery, and there is a pencil study on the verso of the unfinished watercolor of The Gate of Memory.

The work is completely symbolic.

The central figure is Love who is holding a sundial. In the finished drawing this figure wears a pilgrim's hat, an accoutrement that recalls Dante's preoccupation with the idea of the pilgrim (see especially the Astarte Syriaca, 1878 - Dante Gabriel Rossetti - SUZUQ