The painting depicts Beatrice Portinari from Dante Alighieri's 1294 poem La Vita Nuova at the moment of her death.

Beata Beatrix is one of Rossetti's most recognized works and has caused Siddal's name to be frequently linked with Dante Alighieri's Beatrice.

[4] In an 1873 letter to his friend William Morris, Rossetti said he intended the painting "not as a representation of the incident of the death of Beatrice, but as an ideal of the subject, symbolized by a trance or sudden spiritual transfiguration.

After stopping and starting the work, he grew to enjoy revisiting the theme, and altered the suffusion of light from the original, increasing background definition, and perhaps the idealization of the subject.

[6] This oil-on-canvas painting, dated 1871–1872, is in the main slightly larger than the original and adds a predella (bottom panel) depicting Dante Alighieri and Beatrice meeting in paradise, the whole set within a frame designed by Rossetti.