My essay on this work is posted under ESSAYS BY PERIOD (scroll down to 19th Century). Redon's Beatrice exemplifies the Dante revival of the 19th century and the new interest in traditional gender roles of the celestial or spiritual female beloved (pure, chaste, girlish, luminous). The celestial woman was the other side of the coin of the femme fatale, a new late 19th century theme also explored by Redon, among many others. The opposite of Redon's Beatrice is Munch's Madonna, a sperm-encircled whore.
