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Book Review
Apr. 15th, 2023 09:48 amThe Marriage Portrait
by Maggie O'Farrell
This novel is set in mid 17th century Italy and follows the too-short life of Lucrezia de Medici, overlooked middle daughter of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, focusing on her short marriage to Alfonso II D'Este, Duke of Ferrara. Lucrezia is given a good education and has a talent for painting, but her interests and talents are not cultivated or celebrated by those around her. She is married off to Alfonso at the age of fifteen after her older sister, his original betrothed, dies. She is dead a year later. Although historians say the cause was tuberculosis, there has long been speculation that Alfonso poisoned her. O'Farrell has her own take on Lucrezia's fate.
The Marriage Portrait is beautifully written. O'Farrell includes lots of detail without overwhelming the prose with description. All of these details are meaningful - there is a concentration on the visual, which underscores Lucrezia's talent for painting; many of these details reinforce motifs of entrapment or confinement. An early episode with the animals in the Medici menagerie is a metaphor for the ensuing narrative. While she is a well-written and interesting and sympathetic character, I did find Lucrezia frustrating in that despite her intelligence she is never able to figure out how to navigate Alfonso's court, or their relationship despite the obvious high stakes. But then again, a big part of the book is looking at how difficult it was for women to carve out any agency or control in their lives.
by Maggie O'Farrell
This novel is set in mid 17th century Italy and follows the too-short life of Lucrezia de Medici, overlooked middle daughter of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, focusing on her short marriage to Alfonso II D'Este, Duke of Ferrara. Lucrezia is given a good education and has a talent for painting, but her interests and talents are not cultivated or celebrated by those around her. She is married off to Alfonso at the age of fifteen after her older sister, his original betrothed, dies. She is dead a year later. Although historians say the cause was tuberculosis, there has long been speculation that Alfonso poisoned her. O'Farrell has her own take on Lucrezia's fate.
The Marriage Portrait is beautifully written. O'Farrell includes lots of detail without overwhelming the prose with description. All of these details are meaningful - there is a concentration on the visual, which underscores Lucrezia's talent for painting; many of these details reinforce motifs of entrapment or confinement. An early episode with the animals in the Medici menagerie is a metaphor for the ensuing narrative. While she is a well-written and interesting and sympathetic character, I did find Lucrezia frustrating in that despite her intelligence she is never able to figure out how to navigate Alfonso's court, or their relationship despite the obvious high stakes. But then again, a big part of the book is looking at how difficult it was for women to carve out any agency or control in their lives.
