Dante and Beatrice

Beatrice, the Italian poet Dante's beloved, serves as his guide through Paradise in his epic poem, The Divine Comedy (1321). The verses from the poem that Scheffer illustrates are written on the frame and translate as follows: "And, of a sudden, meseemed that day was added / unto day, as though he who hath the power, / had adorned heaven with a second sun. Beatrice was standing with her eyes all fixed / upon the eternal wheels, and I fixed my sight / removed from there above, on her."