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September 26, 2006
Popes, Cardinals, and Women
What did Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, the protagonist in the historical novel Maddalena, have in common with his grandfather Pope Paul III, besides being the greatest art patron of his time?
A lust for women.
When Alessandro was twenty-four-years old, his miniaturist Giulio Clovio provided Titian with a sketch of his mistress, the courtesan Angela, whose lovely face was immortalized in the Venetian master’s reclining nude, kept in the cardinal’s private quarters for most of his life. To satisfy a code of propriety, the Venetian master transformed the sensuous nude in Alessandro’s painting into the mythological Danaë being raped by Zeus, the wanton god symbolized by a shower of gold.
How sensuous? The papal nuncio, Giovanni Della Casa, reported that Titian’s masterpiece would have excited even the principal Censor of the Church, and the future head of the Roman Inquisition, the severe Dominican Tommaso Badia. Although the pope was furious by his grandson’s lack of prudence, if not virtue, he was too busy having his bedroom decorated with the stories of Cupid and Psyche. And Cardinal Farnese, protected by his grandfather, and unlimited wealth, could not only buy many courtesans’ favors, but stop the wagging fingers over breaking every code of honor imposed on him as the second-in-command after the pope.
A family aberration? Surely not.
Paul III ascended the papal throne with four legitimized children, and great dynastic plans for his grandchildren. His grandson Alessandro, made Cardinal at fourteen, and life-time Vice-Chancellor at fifteen, resented his ecclesiastical career, dreaming of being a prince. Papabile three times, he didn’t take his major vows for thirty years. Unlike Paul III, the immensely rich Alessandro was not rich enough to bribe his way to the coveted papal chair.
The moral climate in the Eternal City is so severe that you can be burned at the stake for the smallest transgression from church dogma. Yet, the Vatican’s most powerful Cardinal has a mistress, an illegitimate son and a daughter, and a sexual relationship with his ward. Prudence, temperance, courage, and justice may be the cardinal virtues; the Cardinal clearly possesses none of them. That His Most Reverend Excellency, Cardinal Farnese, actually lived, adds a deeper dimension to what is already a stunningly rich tapestry of everyday life in Michelangelo’s Rome.
There's more. Read Maddalena!
Posted by Eva Siroka at September 26, 2006 06:58 PM