Six centuries ago today, on May 21st 1425, a family drama reached its bloody climax in the court of the Marquis of Ferrara. The story of Parisina - Laura - and Ugo, their guilty passion as stepmother and stepson of the same age and the unyielding punishment meted out by their husband and father, Marquis Nicolà III d’Este, himself notoriously promiscuous, has inspired writers, including Byron, composers such as Mascagni, with D’Annunzio as his librettist, and not a few indifferent artists over the succeeding centuries.
The story could perhaps only have occurred in an early Italian renaissance court, for all that variants on the ‘eternal triangle’ are the basis of so much fact and fiction.
Wikipedia has biographies of the three players in this triangular relationship at Niccolò III d'Este, at Parisina Malatesta, and at Ugo d'Este
There is an account of the story from This Italian Life website from 2016 at Once Upon a Time in the Court of d'Este.
There is another, with portraits of the three principal players from a genealogy of the family, in a somewhat more florid style from 2021 from vitminevaganti.com at Il tragico destino di Parisina, un amore che sfida i secoli The story has a translation app.
Looking online one is struck by the family resemblance of Nicolà and his three sons in their portraits.
This was a violent age and culture - when Parasina was a baby her mother was apparently poisoned by her father over an inheritance, Parasina and Nicolà’s daughter may well have been murdered by her husband, a relative of Parasina, and Nicolà III himself may well have died after being poisoned on a visit to the Milanese court.
No comments:
Post a Comment