More on the discovery of the world’s only formal portrait of Lucrezia Borgia

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24756827-28737,00.html

The Weekend Australian had some more information on the work involved in verifying the provenance of a painting in Victoria that seems to be the world’s only-ever formal portrait of Lucrezia Borgia. And in this case the report challenged the outlandish claims of the black legend that has consumed Lucrezia Borgia with the passage of time:

The myths that surround Borgia cloud our thinking about this work.

How could the seemingly virtuous, pious noblewoman in the portrait be the murdering, scheming, politically ambitious woman who was said to have had an incestuous affair with her brother? In recent years scholars have rejected these stories, blaming Victor Hugo's 1834 novel about Borgia, and Donizetti's opera that premiered the same year, for themisinterpretation [sic].

How welcome it is to see a bit of balance for a change instead of the usual character assasination and demonisation, with its anti-Catholic subtext.

Reginaldvs Cantvar
9.XII.2008 A.D.

Discovery in Australia of the world’s only extant portrait of Lucrezia Borgia?

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24704370-5001028,00.html

From the Sydney Daily Telegraph:

A MYSTERY painting held by the National Gallery of Victoria for 43 years is being hailed as a "revelatory" portrait of the infamous, incestuous [???] Italian Renaissance woman Lucrezia Borgia.

Note, however, that the article’s reference to the ‘historical record’ is not necessarily accurate.

Reginaldvs Cantvar

28.XI.2008 A.D.