Dante Rencontre Béatrix 1899

Henri Martin created this print, Dante Rencontre Béatrix, in France, around the turn of the 20th century, when there was a resurgence of interest in spirituality. Martin looked back to Dante Alighieri’s medieval poem, the Divine Comedy, in which Dante is guided through hell and purgatory, toward paradise, by his idealized love, Beatrice. As in much art of the period, we see an interest in the figure of woman as a guide to the soul, someone whose purity and virtue can pull men from the depths of corruption. The print’s dreamy landscape and hazy outlines further enhance this idea. But it’s worth remembering the historical context here. This was a period in which the established power of the Catholic Church was being challenged and the role of religion in society was hotly debated. Dante was a safe subject for Martin, but also a way to represent these debates in symbolic form. The historian can use archives to understand what was being written and discussed in this period, in order to place the work of art in its intellectual context.