The Borgia Black Legend: Clothing a Femme Fatale

[Alfred W. Elmore. Lucrezia Borgia (1863), Private Collection]

Take a look at the painting by Irishman Alfred Elmore of Lucrezia Borgia. She wears a voluminous red gown with massive, ruffled sleeves. Her hair is pinned up ornately, with a golden tiara wrapping around it. She is pushing back an assassin, as indicated by his expression and the dagger in his hand. While it might appear that she is stopping the man, perhaps she is informing him the deed is already done through a placating gesture. Take a look at her hand; a small vial is clutched in its pale flesh. Poison, perhaps?

The Borgia Black Legend would like historians to think of Lucrezia as a poisoner and a schemer, one of history’s greatest femme fatales, villainesses, and witches. The nineteenth-century became a breeding ground for rumor and misrepresentation with the help of Alexandre Dumas’ novel and Donizetti’s opera.[1] An incestuous harlot who coupled with her brother and her father, who bore a son out of wedlock, who murdered as gleefully as her sadistic brother and corpulent father.[2] But is this the case? Is this the true Lucrezia Borgia, or a rumor manifested in a buxom wench?

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Thrice-Married, Twice-Widowed, Once Innocent -

In her lifetime, Lucrezia Borgia (1480–1519) would rise above the sins of her brother, Cesare, and her father, Alexander IV. She proved to be a wonderful wife to her husband, Duke Alfonso I de’Este, and mother to five children. She possessed fine social graces perfected in the Vatican to charm Ferrarese citizens and diplomats. Devout, keenly intelligent, and a natural administrator, Lucrezia whipped Ferrara into shape during her reign.[3] While as a noblewoman her life was lived largely indoors, attending to courtiers, diplomats, and her household, Lucrezia managed Ferrara well. Although her sister-in-law, Isabella, and her father-in-law, Ercole, grumbled against her, contemporaries admitted that Lucrezia cultivated the city’s piety and culture, as well as its agricultural resources.[4]

Before Ferrara, before Alfonso, and before Cesare’s conquest of the Romagna, Lucrezia was married off in 1493 by her father to a political necessity. Giovanni Sforza, lord of Pesaro, had connections to Mantua, a powerful buffer against French borders. It was a loveless marriage by all accounts, and it was quickly annulled when the lord no longer served the pope’s schemes. The reason? Impotence. Insulted, Sforza circulated rumors that the pope’s daughter lay with Cesare, perhaps even with her own father.[5]

A few years later, in 1497, Lucrezia allegedly bore a baseborn son after a sexual affair with Pedro Calderon, a young courtier in the pope’s household. While the pope claimed the child as his own (a more acceptable alternative at the time), poor Pedro was found floating face-down in the Tiber River while Lucrezia retreated to a convent. Shortly thereafter, in 1498, Lucrezia would marry Alfonso of Aragon, duke of Bisceglie, whom she would deeply love. Until he was murdered when an alliance with Naples became a liability.[6]

Lucrezia was twenty-two when she married her third husband in 1502. Her reputation proceeded her, but a dowry of 100,000 ducats, territory, and a reduction in papal taxes proved irresistible to Alfonso’s father, Duke Ercole. And with Lucrezia in Ferrara, Cesare may be less inclined to conquer the duchy in his war in the Romagna.[7]

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Dressing a Duchess -

[Bartolomeo Veneto. Idealized Portrait of a Courtesan as Flora (c. 1520), Städel Museum, Frankfurt]

Lucrezia has been depicted in various fashions through history, portraiture, and media. One example is a painting of an Italian woman (allegedly Lucrezia) many years after her death. It is a pagan outfit, one that bares a single breast from a gown of white silk. Golden curls tumble from underneath a headdress of the same fabric. She grips flowers in her hand; a laurel wreath encircles her head. A gold cross necklace tumbles down her chest. It is not chaste, not even remotely Catholic. Yet it plays into the rumor of a seductive, coquettish femme fatale with poison on her lips.

[Bartolomeo Veneto. Portrait of Lucrezia Borgia (c. 1510), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nimes, Nimes]

An earlier painting by Veneto depicts Lucrezia in different fashion, albeit one more Italian. A dark gown (camora) with gold brocade tumbles down her. The sleeves are full but slashed at the bottom to reveal a blouse. A white gown (camicia) beneath the dark gown is high enough to cover her chest, but gold stripes create interest. A necklace of rubies and pearls runs along the neckline. Gold embroidery hooks gold rings to the bodice.[8] As Allyson Burgess Williams’ research shows, existing inventories from her wardrobe in Ferrara indicate the duchess favored dark fabrics with gold accents.[9]

This is the duchess of Ferrara, not some pagan nymph like the earlier portrait. At the time of this painting, Lucrezia had been duchess for seven years, was a grown woman, and had given her husband many children. She finally had a reputation outside of her family’s blackened name. There is a chaste appearance to her in the soft expression and muted colors. The jewel-encrusted hairnet capturing her golden hair harkens back to her wedding day. Lucrezia’s procession into the cathedral became the talk of Ferrara. Her wedding dress dripped gold and brown satin stripes rippled up the skirts; a hairnet encrusted with diamond and pearls holding her golden tresses. As her dress and jewelry were fabulously expensive, to contemporary observers she stood as an example of how ecclesiastical wealth led to social mobility.[10] She needed to impress the people though and to compete with her sisters-in-law for prestige in the Ferrarese court. Isabella was the marquise of Mantua, and Beatrice was the duchess of Milan. Little Lucrezia, duchess of Ferrara, had to stand against these women who saw her only through the eyes of the black legend.

[Left: Titian. Portrait of Isabella d’Este (1534-36), Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna]

[Right: Master of Pala Sforzesca. Pala Sforzesca (1494), Pinacoteca Brera, Milan]

These women were fashion icons in their own right. In fact, take a look at two portraits of the women. The portrait of Isabella is luxurious. She is portrayed as a younger woman than she was when the portrait was completed. Her red hair is twisted up into a balzo (turban-like) headdress. Her gown is richly embroidered with velvet over a ribbon-edged camisa. An ermine sash coils around her, the white contrasting the cloths-of-gold-and-silver on her brocade sleeves. Jewels line some of the silks. In this detail from the Pala Sforzesca, viewers can see Beatrice d’Este kneeling before the Madonna and Christ child. She wears an ornate gown of cloth-of-gold and green stripes, with ribbons spilling from the sleeves. Her hair is pulled back in a long braid coiled with ribbons. A hairnet of jewels crowns her head. The chastity and devotion in this detail elevate the Ferrarese ruling family in the eyes of courtiers. They had the wealth to commission such work and respectable piety as seen in the work. Lucrezia was expected to become a renowned patron of the arts and religion, and she vied with her sisters-in-law for this position.

But like the remainder of the Borgias, Lucrezia’s name was blackened by enemies of her father. All of the beauty, intelligence, and diplomacy in the world could not have protected her from dissenters at court and evil outside of the walls. She might have been fashionable, but Lucrezia was still a Borgia.

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The Femme Fatale -

[Episode Still of Holliday Grainger as Lucrezia Borgia (Showtime, 2011)]

Neil Jordan crafted a different Lucrezia in his Showtime series The Borgias (2011–13). He explored a victim, an independent woman, and the femme fatale. Played by Holliday Grainger, Lucrezia appears innocent in the first few episodes, married off like a brood mare to Giovanni Sforza. Her wedding dress is spectacular, with gold and white brocade cascading down her body. It emulates her historic gown worn in Ferrara. Giovanni loathes the Borgias, so much in fact that he rapes Lucrezia on her wedding night.[11] Lucrezia retreats into the arms of Paolo, a stable boy, having his child. Cesare schemes and undoes Lucrezia’s marriage. His love for his sister is one of his few redeeming qualities.[12]

In the next season, Lucrezia embraces her dark side. During a pagan feast, she dresses softly and sadly, emulating Veneto’s alleged portrait of her.[13] Shortly thereafter, Paolo is murdered by Juan. Grief is set aside as she rules Rome in her father’s absence.[14] Then, Alfonso of Aragon sweeps into her sights, angering Cesare and dividing the family. What was seeded as infatuation grows into resentment. Alfonso will not have sex with Lucrezia before they are married, and his family refuses to recognize her bastard son. The Borgia daughter finds solace in her Borgia brother. Cesare and Lucrezia fall deeply in love, consummating their relationship on her wedding night.[15]

It truly is the final spiral, as Lucrezia distances herself from Alfonso, plots to poison her father-in-law, and blackmails his heirs after the king’s untimely death. Her husband senses that Cesare and Lucrezia are more than siblings; his only answer becomes alcohol. Drunk, Alfonso spirals as well, and the marriage ends in bloodshed. Alfonso challenges Cesare in a duel, the former mortally wounded. To ease his pain and to finish him, Lucrezia poisons him.[16]

[Top Left: wedding to Giovanni Sforza (Showtime, 2011); Top Center: Lucrezia in Borgia red (Showtime, 2012); Top Right: Lucrezia sitting for a portrait (Showtime, 2011); Center Left: Cesare and Lucrezia color coordinating (Showtime, 2011); Center Right: Lucrezia in charge of Rome (Showtime, 2012); Bottom Left: killing Alfonso of Aragon (Showtime, 2013); Bottom Right: Cesare and Lucrezia at the bacchanalian feast (Showtime, 2012)]

Audiences see Lucrezia’s character unfold through her clothing. Bright colors in her youth slowly give way to Borgia red, with plenty of cleavage for the eyes. High waistlines and folds of cloth accentuate full hips. When she is around Cesare, blues and purples color her dresses, sadness and longing echoing across the silks. A cross necklace loops around her throat, though her actions are hardly pious. Audiences do not see the chaste, serene Lucrezia of Ferrara. They see accurate Renaissance clothing, clearly vintage in colors and styles. But her character becomes the black legend. Audiences see the schemer, the poisoner, the femme fatale.

[Left: Giulia Farnese, the pope's mistress (Showtime, 2011); Right: Vanozza, the mother of the Borgia children (Showtime, 2011)]

In The Borgias, much of Lucrezia’s inspiration seems to come from Giulia Farnese (c. 1474-1524), her father’s mistress, someone much closer to Lucrezia’s age than her own mother, Vanozza (1442-1518). Giulia is no stranger to suggestive clothing or independence. Lucrezia and Giulia both are women who pursue sex rather than appear as objects of a man’s affection. They are sexually mature, and audiences quickly become aware of it. Lucrezia pursues Paolo, Lucrezia pressures Alfonso, Lucrezia convinces Cesare (thought it did not take much). The Renaissance woman da Vinci painted with all the hallmarks of virtuous expression is not seen in Showtime's female characters.

[Top Left: Lucrezia Borgia in the game (Ubisoft, 2010); Top Right: Cesare chokes Lucrezia (Ubisoft, 2010); Bottom Left: Lucrezia seduces Ezio (Ubisoft, 2010); Bottom Right: Tintoretto Domenico Robusti, Portrait of a Courtesan (1599), Private Collection]

Lucrezia is similarly portrayed in Ubisoft’s popular video game Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (2010). A tight Borgia-red dress rises into a vampiric rebato, pulling eyes to her chest. This is inspired by a late sixteenth-century portrait of a courtesan completed by Robusti. Her only outfit is purely vogue, meant to appeal to a male audience through sex and sensuality. She is buxom, beautiful, a vixen with a Renaissance twist.[17] She beats Caterina Sforza in her cell, plots against her own father, and attempts to seduce the assassin Ezio Auditore. She is present when her brother sacks Ezio’s hometown and when he kills their father with a poisoned apple. While devious, her character also comes across as weak, cowering before her brother and resorting to base tactics to survive.

The historic Lucrezia Borgia would have been disappointed in her Showtime and Ubisoft iterations. They fail to encompass the breadth of her character, especially her benevolence and charity.[18] Grainger’s Lucrezia embodies the intelligence and political mind seen in the duchess of Ferrara, but she pairs them with malice and spite. Lucrezia in Brotherhood is a misappropriation of a Renaissance woman. Though Grainger's costumes are accurate in color and symbolic effect, her characterization is slighted for villainy. Neither the show nor the game have ever admitted to historic accuracy though; entertainment is their business. Sexy, sinister, and smart – now that is a femme fatale to remember.

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Notes:

[1] Dumas’ novel Celebrated Crimes (pub. 1840) featured a volume on the Borgias, casting Lucrezia as a femme fatale. Gaetano Donizetti’s opera Lucrezia Borgia (premiered 1833) is a melodrama based on Victor Hugo’s play of the same name and casts her in a similar shadow.

[2] Diane Y. F. Ghirardo, “Lucrezia Borgia’s honor,” in The Borgias: Rumor and Representation, ed. Jennifer Mara DeSilva (Routledge: New York, 2020), 60.

[3] Allyson Burgess Williams. “Rewriting Lucrezia Borgia: Propriety, Magnificence, and Piety in Portraits of a Renaissance Duchess” in Wives, Widows, Mistresses, and Nuns in Early Modern Italy: Making the Invisible Visible through Art and Patronage (London: Routledge, 2016), 77.

[4] Sergio Costola, “Lucrezia Borgia at the Este court,” in The Borgias: Rumor and Representation, ed. Jennifer Mara DeSilva (Routledge: New York, 2020), 80.

[5] Williams, “Rewriting Lucrezia Borgia,” 79.

[6] Alfonso of Aragon was allegedly murdered by Cesare Borgia. Williams, 79.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid., 85.

[9] Ibid., 86.

[10] Ibid., 79.

[11]The Borgias. “Lucrezia’s Wedding.” Directed by Simon Cellan Jones. Written by Neil Jordan. Showtime, April 17, 2011.

[12]The Borgias. “Nessuno (Nobody).” Directed by Jeremy Podeswa. Written by Neil Jordan. Showtime, May 22, 2011.

[13] The rose silk gown is sheer and cut in the ancient Roman fashion. She is Echo, who famously could not confess her love to Narcissus, a symbol of how Lucrezia could not confess her love to Paolo. The Borgias. “The Borgia Bull.” Directed by Neill Jordan. Written by Neil Jordan. Showtime, April 8, 2012.

[14] Lucrezia impresses the citizenry by addressing public works and attending to orphans. She is a welcome sight in the city, unlike her father and brother. The Borgias. “Stray Dogs.” Directed by Jon Amiel. Written by Neil Jordan. Showtime, April 29, 2012.

[15] Lucrezia recognizes that only a Borgia can love a Borgia. In the next episode, when the King of Naples discovers his son never consummated the marriage, he demands that the consummation be observed. Ironically, Cesare is a witness. The Borgias. “Siblings.” Directed by Jon Amiel. Written by Guy Burt. Showtime, April 28, 2013.

[16]The Borgias. “The Prince.” Directed by Neill Jordan. Written by Neil Jordan. Showtime, June 16, 2013.