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PEOPLE & ARTS Friday 23 June 2017
Rome show smashes myth Virgin model was Borgia pope’s lover

By FRANCES D’EMILIO painted around 1535 and
Associated Press titled “Lady with Unicorn.”
ROME (AP) — For centu- Thought to possibly depict
ries, Renaissance artist Pin- Giulia Farnese, the round
toricchio was practically face, luminous eyes and
accused of blasphemy by flowing hair in that painting
those who contended he seem to match historical
used Pope Alexander VI’s descriptions of the Borgia
young lover as the model pope’s lover.
for the Madonna in a wall Buranelli said dismantling
painting that decorated the long-held legend about
the pontiff’s private apart- the Madonna portrait fits
ment. into recent efforts to evalu-
That’s nothing more than ate the Borgia pope’s ac-
malicious speculation that complishments apart from
became a hard-to-die the libertine legacy many
myth, concludes a summer associate him with. (Before
exhibit of Pintoricchio’s becoming pontiff, he is be-
works at Rome’s Capitoline lieved to have fathered
Museums. seven children by various
One of the curators, Fran- mistresses. That is “not to
cesco Buranelli, branded say rehabilitating him, but
as essentially “fake news” trying to judge him in the
the notion that Pintoric- context of his times, in par-
chio’s “Madonna with ticular the political times in
Child” was a portrait of Former director of the Vatican Museums Francesco Buranelli speaks in front of a copy by Pietro which he reigned,” the cu-
Giulia Farnese. A stunning Facchetti of Renaissance master Pintoricchio’s mural panting depicting Borgia Pope Alexander VI rator said.
beauty with long, chestnut- on his knees before Baby Jesus held by the Virgin Mary that was decorating a private chamber in Elected pope the same
colored tresses, Farnese the Borgia papal apartment at the Vatican, part of the exhibition “Pintoricchio. year Columbus is credited
came from an ambitious Associated Press for discovering the New
Italian noble family. De- World, the Borgia pope
tractors dubbed her “the was considered a mediator
Bride of Christ” and “the ceeded the previous Alex- faced at an art market, The fragment depicting the and peace-maker as Euro-
pope’s concubine.” ander. The 1492-1503 Bor- said Buranelli, who for 11 rest of the Borgia was likely peans raced to colonize
Giorgio Vasari, a 16th cen- gia papacy was interwo- years served as director the destroyed under Alexander the Americas. A demarca-
tury painter and biogra- ven with a family dynasty Vatican Museums. VII, Buranelli said. tion decided by Alexander
pher of artists, perpetuated of violence, jealousy and Like key pieces of a jigsaw The exhibit, which runs until VI split South America into
the claim that “Madonna intrigue, the stuff of which puzzle with its other pieces Sept. 10, encourages visi- spheres of Spanish and Por-
with Child was essentially eventually inspired a TV se- long scattered, the portrait tors to draw their own con- tuguese influence, a papal
a portrait of Farnese. The ries. of the infant Jesus is shown clusions in part by compar- legacy still felt today in the
Capitoline show’s organiz- The painting was ripped out side-by-side in the exhibit’s ing other Madonnas paint- language divisions on that
ers describe her as “the and over time, its remaining last room with another frag- ed by Pintoricchio. continent, Buranelli noted.
adolescent lover and not fragments were thought to ment: the Madonna that The Madonna’s slender Curators hope the exhibit
very hidden concubine” have been lost forever. But all the fuss was about. nose, sweet oval-shaped will travel, after the Pin-
of Alexander VI, who was it turned out some of the That fragment was loaned face and nearly closed toricchio Madonna gets a
born as Rodrigo de Borgia. original did survive. by a private collection modest eyes strongly re- badly needed restoration.
The painting provoked so In 2005, a fragment de- whose identity Burane- semble those of the Virgin In the 1970s, Pope Paul
much scandal that Pope picting Baby Jesus, rosy- lli wouldn’t reveal. He de- Mary in other Pintoricchio VI converted the Borgia
Alexander VII ordered the cheeked and with his right scribed the display as the works in the show. apartment into an exhibit
fresco removed more than foot held by the extended first public showing ever for And it sharply contrasts with space for modern religious
five decades after he suc- hand of Alexander VI, sur- the missing Madonna. a portrait by Luca Longhi,
art, Buranelli said.q
In the stars: New John Green

novel coming in October

NEW YORK (AP) — John Stars,” which came out in “This is my first attempt to
Green fans, mark your cal- 2012. According to Dutton, write directly about the
endar. the new release is “about kind of mental illness that
The author of the million-sell- lifelong friendship, the in- has affected my life since
ing “The Fault in Our Stars” timacy of an unexpected childhood, so while the sto-
has a new novel coming reunion, Star Wars fan fic- ry is fictional, it is also quite
Oct. 10, Dutton Books an- tion, and tuatara. But at personal,” said Green, who
nounced Thursday. The its heart is Aza Holmes, a has spoken publicly about
book is called “Turtles All young woman navigating his struggles with obsessive- In this July 21, 2015, file photo, author John Green attends the
the Way Down” and tells daily existence within the compulsive disorder and premiere of “Paper Towns” in New York.
of a 16-year girl in search ever-tightening spiral of her anxiety. He is one of the Associated Press
of a missing billionaire as own thoughts.” Green, 39, world’s most loved authors
she copes with mental ill- said in a statement that he and sales just for “The Fault tients, tops 45 million cop- of the same name starring
ness. “Turtles” is Green’s had been working on “Tur- in Our Stars,” the tearjerker ies. “The Fault in Our Stars” Shailene Woodley and An-
first book since “Fault in Our tles” for a long time. about two teen cancer pa- was adapted into a movie sel Elgort. q