The Marriage Portrait

In 1561, 16-year-old Lucrezia’s husband of one year, Alfonso, the Duke of Ferrara, takes her to Fortezza, near Bondeno; she realizes that he intends to kill her. The setting, “a high-walled edifice of dark stone, flanked on one side by dense forest and on the other by a twisting meander of the Po river,” seems ominous (1). She sees that he led her out here to a place where he hunted during childhood so she would be away from their court at Ferrara and all the people who could come to her rescue. She wonders how he will try to kill her.

In Florence in 1544, Eleanora, wife of Cosimo di Medici, “regret[s]” the circumstances in which her fifth child, Lucrezia, was conceived. According to superstition, the mother’s thoughts at the time of conception influence the character of the child. By the time of Lucrezia’s conception, Eleonora, who is of Spanish descent, has produced four healthy children, as well as one child who died before baptism. She is keen to become pregnant again. However, when Cosimo visits her, Eleanora is contemplating maps and town planning. When Cosimo is reaching orgasm, Eleanora’s mind is on ancient Greece and the Roman Empire.