In his tragedy Francesca da Rimini (1901) d’Annunzio refracts the famous figure of Dante’s lustful damned in the prism of his own artistic sensibility giving her characteristics that are tightly connected with his intimate vein. Through a close comparison between the tragedy text and the other works of d’Annunzio (particularly the novel Il fuoco (The flame of life) (1900) two Francesca’s hidden faces emerge: the one brings her near to the mythological figure of Persephone and the other makes her similar to the Foscarina, the female protagonist of Il fuoco. Moreover, a methodical comparison among d’Annunzio’s texts discloses how much the red rose that Francesca hands to Paolo during the first act is part of her, containing the lust and the blood, the love and the death that mark her destiny.