In Maggie O’Farrell’s The Marriage Portrait, the historical backdrop of Renaissance Italy leaps off the page, bringing us the tale of Lucrezia de’ Medici, third daughter of Cosimo de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany—a figure shrouded in obscurity and tragedy.

O’Farrell paints a vivid picture of young Lucrezia, who much prefers the strokes of her paintbrush and exploring the Palazzo over the harsh expectations of nobility. Lucrezia's life takes a sharp turn at 12 when she’s promised to Alfonso d’Este, Duke of Ferrara—her deceased sister’s once-intended.

Once she enters the duke’s world at age 15, Lucrezia faces the challenge of threading her way through the intricate politics of her new home—a place where her worth hinges on her ability to bear a son. Alfonso himself is a riddle—sometimes showing kindness, other times distant and cruel. This push and pull creates an interesting dynamic, stirring empathy for Lucrezia as she navigates her new life.

A year after moving to his home, Lucrezia is dead. What really happened to her is a mystery. Officially, she died of pulmonary tuberculosis, but rumors have circulated for centuries that her husband poisoned her. That suspicion inspired the English poet Robert Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess” in 1842.

O’Farrell is a master of atmosphere. Just like in Hamnet, her writing is a tapestry of historical detail and emotion. However, the pacing slows at points, and the restrained use of dialogue sometimes makes the narrative feel a bit too quiet. She develops tension (and some confusion) with a dual timeframe, opening in 1561 when Lucrezia is sure Alfonso wants to kill her, then circling back to depict her childhood in Florence.

The Marriage Portrait may not eclipse the triumph of Hamnet, but it’s a story rich in detail, emotional depth, and a whisper of mystery. A solid 4 stars.

** Thanks to the publisher for a comp of this book. The opinions are my own.

O'Farrell's prose is always gorgeous, and the 16th century Renaissance Italy setting of The Marriage Portrait is compelling and richly described. I enjoyed the slow boil tension of the plot, following the very naive Lucrezia as she is slowly marched toward her destiny as the Duchess of Ferrara. Things did bog down a bit in the middle, and I really wanted to shake Lucrezia until she was a little more swift on the uptake. To be fair, I think that was intentional - we're meant to remember at all times that the heroine is a sheltered, pampered 15 year old girl raised to be dutiful and not a witty, swashbuckling sassbasket from a modern fantasy novel. There's a fine line between authentic and insipid when it comes to Lucrezia, however. 4 stars for beautiful writing and the ambiguous ending.

An absolutely enchanting and engrossing story, historically accurate and detailed. I loved the atmosphere and the characters, the twists and turns in the story and the development of Lucrezia's body and mind. A compelling, fabulous book, perfect to read when you want to get away.

Another wonderful novel by Maggie O'Farrell. It's rare to find a novelist whose work is so uniformly terrific. Hamnet was another winner.

A riveting tale of the late Duchess, Lucrezia de Medici, married at a young age to Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara, in 1561. Spending her first and only year of marriage with Alfonso, a man described as a double-headed God with two personalities, she is quite sure he intends to kill her. Beautifully written, with one memorable scene after another, brought this story to life for me at a pace I appreciated. An elegantly written mystery, with beautiful descriptions of royal life in the mid-1500s, provides the background, then tension builds slowly as the marriage occurs. The author relies on the very believable idea that in this era, "the woman, not the man, will be blamed." While the intrigue is compelling, the subtle language and details make this an excellent read.

I loved this book. The writing is outstanding and the plot carefully unfolds itset into a can’t put it down story. It is a fascinating read I highly recommend.

I absolutely LOVED it! Maggie O’Farrell gets historical fiction. Even knowing the storyline ahead of time, that ending shook me. I didn’t want the book to end! Thanks to NetGalley for the arc.

The Marriage Portrait is a slow burn coming of age story that follows a young Lucrezia, who has a fierce spirit within but can't let that spirit out in the society she was born into. To love this book, you need to enjoy a very detailed and very descriptive read. There is no urgency to get to the point here. There is a lot of flipping back and forth through time. Enjoying historical references and details is also a must. I enjoyed this read but found myself needing to read the physical book over the audiobook or I would tune it out. Also, it did seem to be a bit too much of a slow burn for me personally. Overall, a good read, but nothing I would rave about. If you know you love a historical literary book, you might love this one, but you need to settle in for the slow ride.

Life as a woman in the Renaissance was rough. This book is about Lucrezia de Medici’s short life and it is a good work of fiction. The audio book did not keep my interest consistently, so I missed a lot. I may need to revisit. I preferred the narrator’s voice when she was in dialogue rather than the other parts of the narration. My favorite Italian word is palazzo.

What a fabulous book. Interesting on multiple levels including the historical role of young women in the Medici era. The descriptions were vivid and the author adeptly used the 2 timelines to build the suspense. The characters and descriptions were believable and allowed the reader to become invested as the mystery unfolded.

Lucrezia is the forgotten difficult child in her family. Sent downstairs in the castle to be wet nursed and then as a quiet daughter favored by neither parent, relegated to the back of the classroom. When her eldest sister dies early, Lucrezia must take her place in a marriage with a cruel man double her age. Fantastic historical fiction about a real woman- Lucrezia de Medici.
Thanks Netgalley for the ARC.

O'Farrell's writing is simply beautiful From the very beginning, its lilting tone and vivid descriptions of Italian royalty during the 1500's introduces the reader to a mesmerizing story.
It's hard to imagine this book is based on true events but it is. Every aspect of the life of Lucrezia de Medici is examined. It is certainly a perfect follow-up to her previous work, Hamnet.

This is a great depiction of the lives of Italian royalty in the 1500s - young women married off to total strangers to further political ambitions; the need for heirs to continue their controls - all the while at the expense of these same girls. The writing is vivid and the story easily comes to life.

O'Farrell sublimely brings to life the distant past in rich color and texture. She presents a captivating tale that explores an alternative theory on the death of Lucrezia d'Medici while bringing into focus the role of women and marriage in court society.

Once more, Maggie O’Farrell has taken my breath away. This was hands down one of my favorite reads of 2022. Her writing sears off the page, drawing in the reader and keeping them enraptured right to the end. I love the recent historical novels that O’Farrell has done, and I can’t wait to see where her incredible writing takes her next.

Based upon a series of real events, the book traces the short and tortured life of Lucrezia de’ Medici, the third daughter and fifth child of Cosimo de’ Medici. Cosimo was the Duke of Florence from 1537-1569 and then became the Grand Duke of Tuscany.

The story begins from the time of Lucrezia’s conception in 1544 and then her young years. It portrays the lives of the royals (her family) and the roles of their servants in their palazzo in Florence. It explains how procreating large numbers of offspring was a way of life to help assure the longevity and stability of ruling class families.

Since birth, Lucrezia was a challenging child who, to a large extent, was kept away from her siblings. She didn’t play with dolls and seemed to be strong-willed with a mind of her own. 

She felt more comfortable with the menagerie of beasts her father kept in the bowels of the castle than she felt spending time with humans. Well-educated by tutors in the palace, she also developed a penchant for painting, images of both nature and mythical creatures.

“The palazzo of Lucrezia’s father was a changeable building, unstable as a weathervane,” writes O’Farrell. 

“Sometimes it felt to her like the safest place in the world…at others it felt as oppressive as a prison.”

An ill-fated marriage at Castello Etense

The Medici family decided that Lucrezia should marry Alfonso II d’Este, the Duke of Ferrara, when she was 12 years old. He was 24 years old and much worldlier. Although Lucrezia was ill-prepared for marriage at that young age, the two families determined that this would be an advantageous union between the dynasties.

(This was shortly after Lucrezia's older sister, Maria, who was originally engaged to marry Alfonso, died before the wedding.)

Lucrezia's loyal lady-in-waiting helped develop a scheme to delay the marriage until her charge was 15 years old. The marriage ultimately took place at Santa Maria Novella in Florence.

After that, Lucrezia moved from Florence to the Castelle Estense in Ferrara—a new place for her, leaving her family and servants behind. She fell in love with Alphonso. But she soon realized that although her husband could be tender and affectionate at times, he could also be mercurial and violent.

After less than a year in the castle, Lucrezia fell very ill with fevers and chills (some believe she suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis) and stayed in her room most of the time. She had limited freedom, watched over by guards and servants.

Lucrezia was never able to conceive an heir and became fearful that her husband wanted to kill her. At the time of her death, she was so tormented emotionally and physically, that she barely resembled the marriage portrait made to showcase her beauty for posterity. 

Bringing Lucrezia’s story to life

The story of Lucrezia’s life was first immortalized in 1842 by poet Robert Browning in “My Last Duchess.”

He wrote: The ladies…are forced to follow the whims, fancies and dictates of their fathers, mothers, brothers and husbands, so they spend much of their time within the narrow confines of their rooms…” 

In this beautifully written, suspenseful tale filled with details of life during the Renaissance, Maggie O’Farrell brings Lucrezia de’ Medici to life, telling the story of a woman seeking to live a different life than the one dictated by the times.

The book is based on copious research and in the epilogue, O'Farrell helps readers discern fact from fiction.

Set in the 1500s in Italy, Lucrezia de Medici is the third daughter born to Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici. Barely in to her teen years, she is married to Duke Alphonso of Ferrera after her older sister Maria, who had been engaged to Alphonso, suddenly dies. Lucrezia sadly dies under mysterious circumstances before her sixteenth birthday. The Marriage Portrait is a fictionalized account of what happened to this young duchess. Filled with intrigue, glamour, deception, and mystery, The Marriage Portrait is a thrilling tale of the life of Lucrezia de Medici.
I was given an ARC of The Marriage Portrait by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
#themarriageportrait
#historicalfiction
#netgalley
#maggieofarrell
#renaissanceitaly

With this imagined story loosely based on the too-short life of Lucrezia de Medici, Maggie O'Farrell perfectly captures how little freedom women of rank in Renaissance Italy had. Simple choices that we would take for granted today- what to wear, who to talk to, who to love, and who to wed- did not belong to Lucrezia. It was heartbreaking to see how her "wild," artistic nature was oppressed. I was utterly riveted and found myself going down the Internet rabbit hole to learn more about the Duke of Ferrara. A worthy follow-up to her previous book Hamnet.

“In 1560, fifteen-year-old Lucrezia di Cosimo de’ Medici left Florence to begin her married life with Alfonso II d’Este Duke of Ferrara”.
“Less then a year later, she would be dead”.
“The official cause of death was given as ‘putrid fever’, but it was rummoured that she had been murdered by her husband”.

Lucrezia did not fit into anyone's mold. In a time when women had no rights, when women were property of their fathers and later, their husbands, they were not supposed to think or plan any part of their lives. Given to a much older man who had previously been betrothed to her older sister, Lucrezia's job was to provide the Duke with a male heir. When she did not immediately become pregnant, her very survival was in jeopardy. Lucrezia spent most of her time painting, until her husband decided to punish her by removing all her art supplies. She was deprived of her loyal servants and provided attendants who reported her every activity to the Duke. Lucrezia knew her days were numbered. However, Lucrezia is not one to give up easily and the story takes some unexpected twists and turns.

O'Farrell's descriptive passages are lush and almost overblown, and at times the descriptions overwhelm the actual story.

Author Maggie O' Farrell takes us back to the 1550's to Florence Italy, where the third daughter of the Duke is suddenly betrothed to the young Duke of Modena after her older sister's untimely death. The novel goes back and forth in time - giving you the story of the young duchess's life, while jumping back to her trip with her husband to a remote hunting lodge - where she believes he plans to kill her. I may have rated the book higher if I had a chance to read it in just a few sittings, but in this busy month of December, I had to pick it up and put it down several times, and I think my enjoyment of the book suffered for this. Maggie O'Farrell excels in the details of historical fiction, and you learn about life during this period. She bases some of her storyline on facts - the menagerie of animals the Duke of Florence had in his castle, the mysterious death of the young duchess, and the storyline of the painting of the duchess takes root in a poem by Robert Browning. "My Last Duchess". A twist at the end rewards you for reading.. Thank you Netfalley for an advanced reader copy.