"Rosetti portrays a trancelike Beatrice presumably in the act of internalized spiritual focus, with her closed eyes prefiguring her future death and heavenly ascendance. The mystical bird bathed in holy light that has alighted on Beatrice's arm recalls the iconic dove used to represent the Holy Spirit. The poppy carried in the bird's beak represents death as well as peace and chastity. A sundial appears to the right of Beatrice's face, and the dial casts its shadow on the hour of nine, a number that Dante connects mystically with Beatrice and her death in numerous ways throughout Vita Nuova. The golden light emanating from Beatrice envelopes the sundial, compositionally framing her face between her hair and the shape of the sundial. The background provides us with a view of the river Arno, its bridge, with the distant silhouette of the Ponte Vecchio and the Duomo of Florence, where Dante and Beatrice both lived until her death in June 1290. To the viewer's right, the figure of Dante stands in front of a well, representing Beatrice's impending rebirth and also his own rebirth as a poet when Beatrice becomes his muse. Dante's figure gazes intently at the figure of Love, who wears a brilliant red dress and who holds a book, presumably the Vita Nuova. Love holds the flaming heart that, in Dante's first dream of Beatrice, Love fed to Beatrice before sorrowfully carrying her with him to Heaven. Rosetti echoes this visionary event by showing Love seemingly beckoning to Dante's figure to follow him off the left side of the picture, perhaps heavenwards."
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