The Borgias: The Most Famous Family in History?

Lively online lecture from ARTscapades on the truth and legend of the Borgias.

The author Sarah Dunant, who has written two novels about the family, took us though their history from Rodrigo becoming Pope Alexander VI in 1492. She looked at why their names may have been blackened, basically because they were Spaniards in the midst of an Italian Catholic church, and how quickly stories of corruption and sexual intrigued started to circulate. She placed them in their time saying that they were no more corrupt than most families of the time.

She looked in a particular at Lucrezia and Cesare, outlining her three marriages and his successful military campaign across Italy which inspired Machiavelli’s The Prince.

I liked that she talked about the artwork they commissioned at the Vatican particularly the decoration of the apartments they built including the frescos by Pinturicchio which includes this portrait of Lucrezia aged 13 as St Catherine.

 

 

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