The role of the symbol in " Divine Comedy» Dante

Dante's ego is unusual. On his way, three symbolic beasts interfere with him - the three most terrible sins according to Dante. These are a panther (lynx), a lion and a wolf. The lynx is voluptuous, the panther is the personification of oligarchic power in Florence. He goes around the lynx. The lion is the pride, as well as the political tyranny of the monarch and the state, it was on the coat of arms of Florence. He goes around him too. The worst thing is greed, the she-wolf. In a broad sense. Virgil, Beatrice sent him. Dante does not want to go down to hell; the inscription above the gates of hell frightens him. Virgil persuades in the name of Beatrice, she is not just a woman.

Dante is the first to turn to passions in world literature and makes them the subject of depiction. Human image. Proverb: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Sinners in the highest circles of hell most often end up there for good intentions. The lower classes are hardened criminals, but there are exceptions. In higher circles there is hope for forgiveness.

The image of Beatrice in Dante's works (“ New life", "The Divine Comedy")

Dante was born in Florence, his name is a family tradition. The Alighieri family was noble and of average income. Ordinary people. When Dante becomes famous, Italians begin to look for signs in ordinary events. Giovanni Boccaccio, Dante's first biographer, tells a dream of Dante's mother. She lies in a meadow under a laurel tree, next to a clean spring. Suddenly she gives birth to a son, he eats laurel berries, drinks from a spring, becomes a shepherd, tries to pick laurel leaves, gets tired, falls, and when he gets up, he is already a peacock. Symbolism: berries are the fruits of the labors of his predecessors, water is philosophy, laurel leaves are glory, a shepherd is the shepherd of nations. Dante wanted to be crowned with a laurel wreath. Fall is death, peacock is a symbol of eternity. Boccaccio does not present facts to us, but creates the spiritual image of a man living on the brink of centuries. Engels: "Dante - the last poet The Middle Ages and the first poet of modern times." The features of both eras coexisted in his nature - increased reflection, psychological conflict. Dante's image is by no means ideal. Excessively proud, ambitious, passionate, did not shy away from politics, but honest. One of the most educated people - but this is self-education. University of Bologna, studied jurisprudence.

Italy in the Middle Ages was not a single state, most of all consisted of the so-called city-republics with guild self-government. There is a representative from each workshop. There should be no disagreements in the workshop - the representative expressed a single point of view. The Italians understood that they had to unite. Selection of two parties: Guelphs and Ghibellines. The Ghibellines - the highest nobility, the aristocracy, fought for the unification of the country under the rule of the German emperor - secular power. The Pope also claimed the unification - the Guelphs, mostly the city nobility, stood for him. Dante was a Guelph by family tradition. He achieved success in politics, but, having ruled for almost 20 years, the Guelphs are split into blacks and whites. The whites, and with them Dante, were guided by the emperor, the blacks - by the pope. A coup in Florence, the whites were defeated, almost everyone was brought to trial, Dante also received such a summons, fled from Florence, never returned there again in his entire life - a wanderer. His wife and children remained in Florence, only a third of his property remained. In exile, Dante wanted worldwide fame, he wanted the Florentines to ask him to return. Glory came, but the Florentines did not forgive him. September 14, 1321 - dies in Rovenna, in the house of his great-nephew Francesca da Ramini. Florence demands Dante's ashes, but Rowenna never returned them.

In 1283, Dante comes to the poets' workshop and brings the first sonnet. It is dedicated to Beatrice. At this time, the “new sweet style” (“dolce stil nuovo”) reigned in Italy. Knightly literature is castle, salon literature, but here the townspeople write for the townspeople. Stylnovist poets adapted the poetry of the troubadours for the townspeople - they enhance the moment of worship of the lady - the lady-angel, the madonna. Love for such a lady is the first step leading to God. The world was created by divine love, it is difficult to know, earthly love is the first step to this. The lady becomes disembodied; in the poetry of the “stilnovists” there are no descriptions. Beatrice is always dressed in scarlet - a sacred color. This is all, but a lot about spiritual appearance. Scholars debate whether Beatrice was real. Beatrice is a symbolic image. There was such a girl, Dante knew her, she died early. Something about her struck Dante, and he created a conditionally ideal image.

“New Life” - Dante writes after the death of Beatrice, must perpetuate her appearance and explain to humanity the concept of love of the Stilnovists. Both poetry and prose. It starts out serious and clumsy. Wants to describe new life after Beatrice's death. He writes that he first met her when he was nine - the magic number (three threes). Then 18 is also a magic number. I always saw her in sacred scarlet robes. He begins to love her with the love of Stilnovists at 18. At first, Beatrice’s inattention hurts Dante, but gradually the bitterness goes away, as Dante realizes that love is valuable in itself, it is an incentive for constant spiritual work and self-improvement. Idealization of the image. In the third part, Beatrice dies, nature mourns her. Death is perceived as a global catastrophe. But there is also part 4, where Dante describes his illness, a lady looked after him - 4 sonnets are dedicated to her. It is clear that he loves her, but with ordinary love. Dante forbids himself to have anything to do with her. "New Life" is the first in the history of Western European literature autobiographical story, reveals to the reader the most intimate feelings. Then he is exiled and Dante forgets about lyrics for many years.

In the biography of every artist there was a woman who inspired the creation of works and was imprinted in them for centuries. The creator of the Divine Comedy, philosopher, poet and politician admired the muse named Beatrice all his life.

History of creation

The name Beatrice Portinari, most likely, would have been forgotten and lost in numerous legends about beautiful maidens, if not for the ardent love of an admirer. In the works of Dante Alighieri there are references to the woman whom Florence and the educated world remember. The great poet's muse and its virtues, subtly emphasized in Dante's lyrical statements, subsequently inspired the poets of the following centuries.

Coming from a simple family that did not have enough money to educate their son, Dante demonstrated a romantic mentality from a young age. At the age of 9, he met a pretty girl who gave birth to a strong and unshakable love in his heart. The daughter of a wealthy Florentine became an object of worship, an admiration for which Alighieri carried through his life and work.

The girl’s origin and status suggested marriage to a representative of her class, so Beatrice did not take Alighieri’s attentions seriously. She was betrothed to the rich man Simon de Bardi, who was favored by the girl's mother. History is silent about how happy the union of Beatrice and Simon was. Dante was happy with dreams of the one who was considered a witch, seeing how the poet was fascinated by her.

The second meeting of Dante and Beatrice took place seven years after they met. This date also did not give Alighieri any reason to believe in the possibility of reciprocity and shared happiness with his beloved. According to legend, the girl remained the only love of his life, who was exclusively platonic in nature. Thanks to the feeling, the image of Beatrice was imprinted in the life and work of Dante, as well as in the history of Italy. Researchers of the artist's biography associate his death with longing for his beloved woman.

A few years after Beatrice's death, her husband married a wealthy girl from an eminent family. Everything that Dante wrote about from that moment on was permeated with memories of his beloved. On the way from Venice, where the poet went on a diplomatic mission, he contracted malaria. Death was inevitable. Dante's tomb, which appeared at the burial site many years later, is decorated with a portrait. The poet looks unnatural in it, since his face is framed by a beard that is unusual for Alighieri. There were rumors that Dante had lost interest in life and even stopped taking care of his appearance, his longing for Beatrice was so strong.

It is curious that Beatrice’s appearance was not as outstanding as Alighieri presented it. The mediocre girl was far from the goddess that the author of the Divine Comedy portrayed her as. The past psychological crisis associated with the death of Beatrice marked the beginning of a new stage in the writer’s life. He began writing a work called “New Life,” but spiritual melancholy haunted him, preventing him from throwing off the heavy burden of memories and experiences.

Biography

A fleeting meeting in childhood became fateful for a boy named Durante degli Alighieri, the future great poet. It turned out to be an ordinary meeting for Beatrice Portinari. Scientists suggest that the girl’s name was Biche, but the poet in love made the name sound euphonious, changing it in his own way. The meaning of the name Beatrice is akin to Beatrice, meaning “happy” or “bestower of happiness.” The neighbor's daughter completely struck the heart of the boy, who had a romantic nature, but Dante learned his true feelings in adulthood. This revelation coincided with the marriage of his beloved.

Boccaccio, having written a lecture in which he examined “Hell” in Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” paid attention to Beatrice not as a poet, but as a distant relative of the girl. His stepmother turned out to be the second cousin of Dante's beloved. Boccaccio confirms the origins of the Florentine and describes her social position, which he knew firsthand.

Beatrice was one of the six daughters of the generous Folco Portinari, and the rich man's son was Dante's best friend. Researchers who have studied Beatrice's biography do not have much information and build theories based on her father's will and artifacts from the archives of the Bardi dynasty.

Contact between the young people never lasted more than a few minutes. The shy poet met Biche a couple of times on the streets of the city. Because of his shyness, Dante never spoke to her, and the girl hardly suspected how strong his feelings were, because the poet paid attention to other ladies as a cover. Despite the fact that he married for convenience, Alighieri's heart belonged to Beatrice.

Legend has it that the girl died at the age of 24, the cause of death being a difficult childbirth. The tomb of Dante's muse is located at the Church of Santa Margherita de' Cerci, in the crypt where her ancestors were buried. But, according to rumors, the place where Beatrice found her final refuge may be the Basilica of Santa Croce.

In the works of Dante

The image of Beatrice is found in Dante's Divine Comedy and in The New Life. Her image, light, airy and ghostly, according to Alighieri, was angelic. He believed that the Almighty took the girl to heaven. The author allowed the heroine to have discussions with the hero of the poem, talking about religion. According to the writer's idea, the heroine Beatrice allowed the character with whom Alighieri identified himself to visit the divine domain. The blessed beloved in the poem responds to the chosen one with reciprocity, which he did not receive during his lifetime.

In “New Life,” the poet covered the story of meeting a girl, drawing parallels with numerological symbols in his own destiny. In the work, Beatrice appears as an exalted being. She is a young angel whose meaning has a mystical background.

Researchers of the work of Dante Alighieri talk about the earthly and theological Beatrice. According to the logic of the author’s works, she carried within herself a symbol of divine Knowledge, preserving refined femininity. The author equated everything human with the divine, using the image of his beloved woman.

31 poems, included in 45 chapters, are dedicated to the poet’s love for his chosen one. The biographical data described in “New Life” today seems both real and fictional due to the spiritual and lyrical manner of the narration.

The image of Beatrice has repeatedly appeared in the works of poets Silver Age and finds echoes in popular culture. For example, her image is used in the anime called “The Devil's Sweethearts.”

In modern feminist theology, Christianity is usually called a “male religion.” The image of God, although not directly gendered, is traditionally thought of in “male” categories. In this regard, the experiment of deification of the Lady, undertaken in the 13th century, is interesting. Italian poets of the “new sweet style” school. This ethical ideal, which inextricably links the Christian religion with the female image, reaches its apotheosis in the works of Dante Alighieri, finding its fullest expression in his main work, The Divine Comedy.
Dante deifies his beloved Beatrice (apparently, she really had extraordinary moral qualities) already in his first poems, written in the spirit of the “new sweet style”.

After Beatrice's early death, the notes of deification sound louder, brighter, more expressive. The Lord has already called her to himself, and now she has taken her rightful place in Paradise among the heavenly angels. In one of his poems, Dante writes that “her good soul, full of all mercy,” ascended. In the original these lines sound “piena di grazia l’anima gentile”. This “piena di grazia” is nothing more than “gratia plena” from the Latin hymn to the Virgin Mary (“Ave, Maria, gratia plena!”). Dante addresses his deceased beloved in a way that could only be addressed to the highest, holiest woman of Christianity - the Mother of God.
Dante ends his first book of poems, “New Life,” with a promise to say about Beatrice “what has never been said about anyone else.” We find the embodiment of this plan in the poet’s most outstanding work - The Divine Comedy.
In fact, the glorification of Beatrice in the Comedy is a continuation of the traditions of the “new sweet style”. In the poem we find traces of it, in some places changed almost beyond recognition. The same deification of a lady, at the same time both a beloved and a heavenly being. Remaining a real woman, Beatrice in the Comedy is the personification of divine love, wisdom and revelation, truth, Christianity and the Christian church, theology and scholasticism (which in the medieval tradition was viewed exclusively in a positive sense - as the way of knowing God).
According to the plot of the poem, it is Beatrice who saves Dante, who is on the verge of spiritual death; thanks to her prayers and intercession, he receives an unprecedented opportunity to visit during his lifetime the afterlife; she also lifts him to the highest heavenly spheres.
Beatrice in the “Comedy” is spoken of as a kind of female “analogue” of Christ, although symbolically in some places of the poem she turns out to be even higher (for example, during the mystical procession in canto XXIX of “Purgatory” the Griffin, personifying Christ, draws a chariot in which he sits Beatrice).
The very meeting of the poet with his beloved in the Earthly Paradise - for all its drama - occurs solely thanks to Beatrice. It was she who came to the aid of Dante in his sinful delusions; in order to save him, she descended into Hell. And her harsh judgment itself has a single goal: to forgive and grant salvation. Beatrice also speaks about this:

“So deep was his trouble,
What could be done to save him?
Only the spectacle of those who perished forever.

And I visited the gates of the dead,
Asking in anguish for help
The one whose hand brought him here"

and Dante - having already reached the heights of heaven:

“Oh lady, the joy of my hopes,
You, to give me help from above
Left her mark in the depths of Hell,

In all that I was called to contemplate,
Your bounty and noble will
I recognize both power and grace."

In the original, the word “soffristi” - “suffered” is striking here: “you suffered for my good, leaving your traces in hell.” Beatrice paid Dante's salvation at a difficult price... And, probably, he fully realizes this right here - at the very top of Paradise. Suffering and atonement for the sins of another person... The idea, which is one of the central meanings of Christianity, receives a “female” embodiment in Dante’s poem. A woman’s love is elevated to the rank of Divine, sacrificial and saving Love.
This became the pinnacle of Dante's glorification of his beloved. The poet kept his promise - no one before him (and, perhaps, after) had ever spoken such words about any woman. This highest deification, the merging of reality and symbol into one person and the ascension of the beloved to the heavenly realms has become one of the brightest, lightest, divinely pure and holy images of a woman in world civilization.

Bibliography:
Dante Alighieri. The Divine Comedy. New life / trans. from Italian M.: AST, 2002.

3.2 Divine love for Beatrice

“Love” is a word that explains everything in Dante’s work. Love for Dante is absolute love, the desire for the great Good, which from childhood awakened in him the light of the innocent eyes of the one who was Beatrice.

This is how Dante talks about the first appearance before his eyes of an eight-year-old Florentine girl who struck his heart and mind for the rest of his life: “For the ninth time after I was born, the sky of light was approaching the starting point in its own rotation, when before my eyes appeared for the first time, a lady full of glory, reigning in my thoughts, whom many - not knowing what her name was - called Beatrice.

At that moment - I speak the truth - the spirit of life, dwelling in the innermost depths of the heart, trembled so powerfully that it was terrifyingly manifested in the slightest beating of the veins. And, trembling, he uttered the following words: “Behold, a god stronger than me has come to command me.” “From the very moment I saw her, love took possession of my heart to such an extent that I did not have the strength to resist it ...” - Dante remembers all this.

For Dante, Beatrice is love, and love in our entire life is a principle essentially extraneous to our will, uninvited, inaccessible, but so often invading our small private world, conditioned by our reason, invading the elements, overturning everything to the bottom.

New, strong feelings are raging in his world, and a whole inner story is growing here, touching in its purity, sincerity and deep religiosity. This such pure love is timid, the poet hides it from prying eyes, and his feeling remains a secret for a long time. In order to prevent other people's gaze from penetrating the sanctuary of the soul, he pretends to be in love with another, writes poetry to her. Rumors begin, and, apparently, Beatrice is jealous and does not respond to his bow.

Some biographers not so long ago doubted the real existence of Beatrice and wanted to consider her image simply an allegory, in no way connected with the real woman. But now it has been documented that Beatrice, whom Dante loved, glorified, mourned and in whom he saw the ideal of the highest moral and physical perfection, is undoubtedly a historical figure, the daughter of Folco Portinari, who lived next door to the Alighieri family. She was born in April 1267, married Simon dei Bardi in January 1287, and died at twenty-three on June 9, 1290, shortly after her father. This love of Dante for Beatrice embodies the ideal of platonic, spiritual love in its highest development. Those who did not understand this feeling asked why the poet did not marry Beatrice. Dante did not strive to possess his beloved; her presence, her bow - that’s all he desires, that fills him with bliss. Only once, in the poem “Guido, I would like...”, fantasy captivates him, he dreams of fabulous happiness, of leaving with his sweetheart far from cold people, staying with her in the middle of the sea in a boat, with only a few , dearest friends.

One might think that Dante, worshiping Beatrice, led an inactive, dreamy life? On the one hand, this is possible, because Demanding more and more, we forget about the true, instilling in ourselves the image of what we want. So this lover idealized a little girl with an angelic face. But if you look deeper, you can see that this “image of what you want” has become something more and given amazing powers. Thanks to Beatrice, Dante ceased to be an ordinary person. The girl became a strong impetus that prompted Dante to create with early years.

But something terrible happened. When Beatrice died, the poet was 25 years old. The death of his beloved was a heavy blow for him. He perceived her death as a cosmic catastrophe. And he spent all his days and nights in tears. In those days, as in ancient Greece, men were not ashamed of tears. After this, Dante saw a “wonderful vision.” In this vision, he says, “in which I saw something that made me decide not to speak more about the blessed one until I was able to tell about her more worthily. To achieve this, I am making every effort, which is truly what she is about.” knows. So, if the one who gives life to everything deigns that my life will last a few more years, I hope to say about her what has never been said about any woman, and may my soul, by the will of the Lord of Court, ascend and see the radiance. my lady, the ever-blessed Beatrice, contemplating in her glory the face of him who is blessed forever and ever." Thus began a series of important works by Dante Alighieri, such as “The Feast”, the treatise “On Popular Eloquence”, “Monarchy” and “The Divine Comedy”.

It should be noted special problem Beatrice in The Divine Comedy. According to the poet, the young Florentine woman was elevated to heaven. "Comedy" was written in her glory. The love that arose on Earth does not go out in heaven: with bright, warm, sometimes scorching flashes of human warmth, it illuminates the cold corners of the universe depicted by Dante.

In our opinion, it is necessary to add an important point: according to the concept of the poem, it was Beatrice who willed heavenly powers gives the poet permission to visit the otherworldly possessions of God. She, as mentioned, does this through Virgil, to whom she entrusts the guidance of the living poet through Hell.

And in the soul of Dante the author, the love for that woman who captivated him in his early youth, whose untimely death he mourned in his poems and in whose name he decided to create this grandiose poetic epic, is still alive. What about Beatrice? From the first moment she appears in "Comedy" she exudes restraint and severity. And so, many commentators condemned her for this. As the author believes, this criticism is not fully justified, since in the expected “Paradise” Dante does not find what he was looking for, to which he had been ascending for so long. And so the fabulous extravaganza of “Paradise” remains cold and empty. Love in “Paradise” is constantly declared, but only as love for God. In this love, perhaps, one can hear the gratitude of those who managed to get into the rank of the blessed, but there is no warmth, no ardent spiritual impulse, without which true love does not exist. If we talk about hot, heartfelt love, then this also flashes in Paradise, but only once and not for long - Dante’s love for Beatrice. This hot feeling did not arise in “Paradise”, not in heaven. It was born on Earth and brought from Earth by Dante. And in “Paradise” it is an unwanted guest. She needs to be hidden here.

And Dante cannot restrain the outpouring of his loving heart:

"The spirit in love, who every hour,

He ardently strived for his goddess,

More than ever I waited for the gaze of sweet eyes;

Everything that nature or the brush has hitherto

Captivated the eye to catch hearts

Or in a mortal body or in a painting,

It would seem insignificant until the end

Before the wondrous joy that flashed upon me,

I almost saw the light of her face"

(R., XXVII, 88-96; see also R., XXХI, 14-36)

Beatrice is not indifferent to these impulses of Dante’s sincere feelings addressed to her, but her reaction is much more restrained: a look, a smile, but this is already too much for the poet who adores her. Most of all, she responds with a reproachful speech, which combines female jealousy, condemnation of any worldly (especially philosophical) hobbies, and denunciation of Dante’s religious doubts and his deviations from orthodoxy.

Obviously, according to Beatrice, the journey through “Hell” was supposed to frighten Dante and return him to the path of humble obedience to God, unreasoning faith, but the required repentance, drenched in tears (Ch., XXX, 145), pious renunciation of the dictates of reason (albeit very contradictory) mentors never got it from the poet.

As noted above, the inconsistency that permeates the entire poem is perhaps most clearly manifested in the complex figure of Beatrice. Throughout the II and III cantik, all she does is “re-educate” the fearless and original poet, and she, especially in the I cantik, although by no means only there, proclaims free-thinking and self-willed ideas: one should only be afraid of what can cause harm to another; “there is nothing else that would frighten us.”

This means, let us repeat, there is no fear of God and should not exist. So is there any room left for God himself? Did Dante realize that through the mouth of Beatrice he expressed essentially unheard of thoughts for that time? And even if we leave the general worldview aspect for a moment and try to limit ourselves to the ethical: there is no external coercive force - there is only man and humanity and relationships between people. What a deep, what a brave, what a humanistic thought! Through the lips of Beatrice, Dante first expressed it - and laid the first stone of the foundation of the future great humanistic ideology.

In the image of Beatrice, Dante’s ability to saturate his heroes with the contradictory spirit of the era was especially clearly demonstrated. At the same time, Dante’s, advanced, soul-liberating thoughts are expressed through the mouths of opponents of Dante, the hero of the poem. It is very important here to grasp (as, indeed, in the Comedy as a whole) the relationship between text and subtext. It becomes clear that Beatrice, as a defender of orthodoxy, as an opponent of a certain skepticism and freethinking, is necessary for the poet:

1) as the most convenient way to express his deep religious doubts;

2) as a means of veiling these doubts, to create the impression that he does not want to deviate from orthodoxy or is ready to return to it.

Let's not forget that Beatrice is the favorite image of the creator of the Comedy. Dante could not help but bring into it what worried him most: new, bold, humanistically oriented moral impulses and thoughts, and his growing doubts about religion, church, politics, and, on the other hand, theological counter-ideas , which surrounded him on all sides, and in disputes, in the fight against which the poet defended the main, early humanistic direction of his worldview. Hence the brightness, attractiveness and striking inconsistency of the image of Saint Florentine.

Conclusion

The analysis of the assigned tasks allows us to draw the following conclusions:

Dante's attitude towards the church is critical; he does not deny religion in any way, since he himself is a deeply religious person. But he cannot help but be concerned about the sinfulness of the “holy” church. And he tries with all his might to expose this.

Dante, as a man, a poet, who thought outside the box for his time, dared to take a grandiose step in his life. This is truly an astonishing paradox. How many contradictions, turmoil, and experiences he had to go through. How should this paradox be explained?

To begin with, Dante is a native resident of Florence; before his eyes, dramatic changes took place in the life of the city, and the country as a whole. Seeing how the world is plunging into vile and terrible vices, he harbored a dream within himself to rid the world of growing evil. To give souls the opportunity to go through the path of purification. Because man’s path to perfection, from lowness to height, is complex, and in Dante’s poem he shows that purification is accomplished through suffering and love. He wanted to give peace to the world! Consequently, this is the first and most important thing that prompted him to write a fundamental work that will remain a shining example for future generations.

Secondly, in a person with such a sensitive and compassionate heart, ideas could not help but develop, a new attitude not only to the world, but also to man. That is, at that time, early Renaissance motifs already prevailed in it. Dante is one of those poets who is worthy of the title of universal or Catholic and whose work is marked by the following features: the main thing is inspiration. There is no poet who has not reached that mysterious breath that the ancients called the Muse. The image, as it were, lifts a person higher, a person sees further around him, and new relationships are established between things, determined not by logic and causal connections, but by a harmonious or complementary vision of a certain unified meaning. But for the appearance true poet inspiration alone is not enough. It is necessary that good will, simplicity and trust should come towards grace and mercy on the part of the individual, and that natural forces should be tamed and directed by reason - courageous, cautious and vigilant, when, in addition, something special is experienced. And therefore there is no need to dwell long on the second gift - high intelligence and critical discernment or taste. To the poet, inspired by vague visions or the call of a mysterious and formless word, the mind gives the strength to create an action with one strict requirement for the material, with one sophistication, fearless and precise, renouncing everything that burdens the path to the goal, to create a universe in oneself, where all parts are organically connected and located in proportions set once and for all.

Dante, the only one of all poets, described the universe of things and souls not from the point of view of the viewer, but from the point of view of the Creator, trying to place them finally not within the framework and context of the question “how”, but within the framework and context of the question “why?”, evaluating them with positions of final goals. He realized that in this visible world it is not integral beings and essences that are available to us, but transient and temporary signs, the eternal meaning of which we do not comprehend. He tried to give full story of that time, at the center of which he was placed, outlining all the limits from random births to the unchanging results of the incomprehensible Divine Wisdom.

And the third, not unimportant thing, is interest in the person; to his position in nature and society; understanding of his spiritual impulses, recognition and justification of them is the main thing in the Comedy. Dante's judgments about man are free from intolerance, dogmatism, and one-sided scholastic thinking. The poet did not come from dogma, but from life, and his person is not an abstraction, not a scheme, as was the case with medieval writers, but a living personality, complex and contradictory. His sinner can be righteous at the same time. There are many such “righteous sinners” in The Divine Comedy, and these are the most vivid, most humane images of the poem. They embodied a broad, truly humane view of people - the view of a poet who holds everything human dear, who knows how to admire the strength and freedom of the individual, the inquisitiveness of the human mind, who understands the thirst for earthly joy and the torment of earthly love.

Dante's poem, accepted by the people for whom it was written, became a kind of barometer of Italian popular consciousness: interest in Dante either increased or fell according to the fluctuations of this self-awareness. The Divine Comedy enjoyed particular success in the 19th century, during the years of the national liberation movement, when Dante began to be extolled as an exiled poet, a courageous fighter for the cause of the unification of Italy, who saw in art a powerful weapon in the struggle for a better future for humanity. This attitude towards Dante was shared by Marx and Engels, who ranked him among the greatest classics of world literature. Pushkin considered Dante's poem one of the masterpieces of world art, in which “a vast plan is embraced by creative thought.”

That is why creativity and the lesson Dante gave us can give our time a lot of material for reflection.

List of used literature

Sources

1. Dante Alighieri. Divine Comedy / Trans. Lozinsky M., 1974.

Research and benefits

2. Asoyan A.A. “Read the supreme poet”: The fate of Dante’s “Divine Comedy” in Russia. M., 1990

3. Balashov N.I. Dante and the Renaissance // Dante and world literature./ Under. ed. N.I. Balashova, I.N. Goenishcheva-Kutuzova, A.D. Mikhailova, M., 1967, pp. 9-45

4. Belyaev V.V. Ancient traditions in Dante’s political life. Saratov, 1983

5. Borges X. L. Nine essays about Dante.// Questions of Philosophy. - 1994. P. 14 //http://www.philosophy.ru/library/vopros/07.html

6. Golenishchev-Kutuzov I. Dante. M., 1967.

7. Derzhavin K. The Creation of Dante.//Dante Alighieri. Divine Comedy / Trans. Lozinsky M., 1974.

8. Derzhavin K. N. Dante Alighieri. Divine Comedy./ Transl. M. Lozinsky.// http://wikilivres.info/wiki/Dante_Alighieri._Divine_Comedy._Translation_by_Mikhail_Lozinsky_(K._Derzhavin)

9. Dzhivelegov A.K. Dante Alighieri. Life and art. M., 1946.

10. Stam S.M. Reflections on Dante's "Comedy": a synthesis of medieval culture? // Man in the culture of the Renaissance. M., 2001. P. 5-23

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Probably many people know or have at least heard about Dante Alighieri and his immortal work “The Divine Comedy”. Nowadays, Dante has gained popularity among many people thanks to Dan Brown's work "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 Dante’s life. In this article you will find answers to all these questions and more. Let's 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 study of the 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 famous Italian scientist and poet at that time. Researchers suggest that in 1286-1287 Dante studied at a very famous and high-status institution of that time - the University of Bologna.

Deciding to prove himself as a public figure, Alighieri actively participated in the life of Florence at the end of the 13th century and in 1301 received the title of prior - a fairly high title at that time. However, already in 1302, he, together with the White Guelph party he created, was expelled from Florence. By the way, he also died in exile, never seeing again hometown. During 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 you.

Early works

By that time, Dante already had the work La Vita Nuova ("New life"). But the next two treatises were never completed. Among them is "The Feast" - a kind of commentary and interpretation of the canzones. Dante loved native language and with all his being constantly fought for its development. That is why the treatise "On in native language", written by the poet in Latin. The fate of the Symposium awaited him: it 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.

"The Divine Comedy"

Dante began work on this poem, dedicated to Beatrice Portinari, while in exile. It consists of three parts, called cantics: “Hell”, “Purgatory”, and “Paradise”. By the way, Dante finished writing the last of them shortly before his death and still managed to finish the work. Each cantika includes several songs consisting of terzas. Interesting fact: in the “Divine Comedy” there are exactly 100 songs, and in each part there are thirty-three of them, and another one is made as an introduction.

We talked about Dante's life, his works, but we missed the most important thing: the one for whom he wrote the Divine Comedy. The biography of this Italian poet is a story of love to the grave, unrequited and tragic.

Dante and Beatrice Portinari

Dante's personal life was connected with only one woman. He met her while still a boy - he was nine years old. At a holiday in the city, he saw his neighbor’s eight-year-old daughter, whose name was Beatrice. Dante truly fell in love with her when, nine years later, he met her as a married girl. tormented the poet, and even seven years after the death of Beatrice Portinari, he did not forget about her. 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 thanks to 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 contacts cannot even be called conversations: having met on the street, Beatrice Portinari and Dante simply said hello. After this, 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 “New Life.” The first conversation between Dante Alighieri and Beatrice Portinari took place when they were still children and met for the first time at a festival in Florence.

Dante saw his beloved many more times, but he was never able to 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.

Beatrice's fate

She was born into a wealthy family: her father, Folco de Portinari, was a famous Florentine banker, her mother also came from the Bardi family of bankers who gave loans to popes and kings. Besides her, there were 5 more daughters in the family, which is not surprising for medieval Europe. As can be judged from the surviving information, the life of Biche, as her friends and Dante affectionately called her, was very stormy. At twenty-one, she married an influential banker from her mother’s family, Simone dei Bardi. Three years later, Beatrice died. There are several versions of her death. One of them says that Dante’s beloved died in childbirth, and the other says that her death was associated with illness. A couple of years after the death of Beatrice, Dante married for convenience to a woman from the aristocratic Italian family of 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 a goddess whom he worshiped. After the death of Beatrice Portinari, Dante, photos of whose portraits you can see below, was depressed for a very long time. His family feared that the poet might commit suicide, he suffered so much. Eventually, Dante's psychological crisis ended, and he began to write La Vie Nueva, inspired by various works written by authors who had experienced the loss of the woman they loved.

Role in art

The name 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 sonnets written to 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

Contrary to the love of the great poet, his beloved was in no hurry to show reciprocal signs of attention. Since she came from a noble family, she was destined to marry a wealthy member of her mother’s family, Simone de Bardi. It is unknown 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 his life, seven years after their meeting, 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 his only and most dear platonic love until the end of his life. In any case, both the life and death of Beatrice had big influence on the culture of Italy in general, and on the Italian poet in particular. The death of the great poet is also associated with suffering after the death of his beloved woman. And with good reason. Let's figure out why.

Death of Dante

A couple of years after Beatrice died, her secret admirer married for convenience to a woman from the aristocratic Donati family. Dante wrote all the time after this event and until his death. All works that came from his pen were certainly dedicated to Beatrice Portinari alone. Dante's biography ends so quickly and swiftly that you can't even believe it. In 1316-1317 great poet settles in Ravenna, arriving there at the invitation of Signor Guido da Polenta. Appointed 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 Dante's photo below.

Signor Guido da Polenta promised to build a luxurious mausoleum in honor of Dante, but for reasons unknown to us he did not do it. The tomb of the great Italian poet was erected only in 1780. Interesting fact: the portrait depicted on Boccaccio's tomb is somewhat unreliable. It depicts Dante with a thick beard, while in real life he always shaved clean.

Many paintings were written based on Dante's works. Among the most famous is “The Map of Hell” (La mappa dell inferno) by Sandro Botticelli. Modern writer Dan Brown in his described the messages of transhumanist Bertrand Zobrist encrypted in this picture. By the way, in the work described above, almost the entire plot is tied to the “Divine Comedy” and its modern interpretation.

Eugene Delacroix, a French painter, fascinated by the fate of Dante and Beatrice Portinari, whose portrait, unfortunately, has not survived, 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 that are in 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 observed. Below you can 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 even heavy) sadness. Indeed, the story that happened between Beatrice Portinari and Dante Alighieri is impossible to invent. 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 those feelings that the great Italian poet sang to his beloved Beatrice Portinari. Dante, whose portraits in different stages you could see his life in our article, he became part of world history and a symbol of true love, which is so lacking in the modern world.