the female head with downcast eyes, a wrapped head-scarf and chemise, raised on a rectangular plinth engraved "BEATRICE",

In Boccaccio’s Life of Dante Beatrice Portinari is identified as providing both the inspiration for Dante’s Vita Nuova and the guide in his Paradiso the third part of His Divine Comedy in which she embodied the concepts of divine love and grace.

Beatrice was also favourite theme of artists belonging to the Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood, in particular the Poet and Painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti.