'Blood and Beauty' brings readers more of the Borgias
As author Sarah Dunant put it in an interview with the Washington Post: 鈥渋f you spend any time in the Renaissance, the Borgias are tapping on your shoulder.鈥�
Almost everyone knows 鈥� or thinks they know 鈥� something about the Borgia family, a powerful group which maneuvered for power in Renaissance Italy and are perhaps today best known for their apparent skill at poisoning, their determination to promote their own, and their overall corruption.
Among the best-known Borgias are Rodrigo Borgia, who became pope as Alexander VI; his son Cesare, who was named a cardinal by his father; and Lucrezia, Rodrigo鈥檚 daughter who was married three times and 鈥� according to legend, anyway 鈥� was particularly notorious for poisoning people.
The newest examination of the family comes in Dunant鈥檚 novel 鈥淏lood & Beauty: The Borgias,鈥� which was released July 16. In it, Dunant tells the story of the group in a fiction format but separates the facts about the Borgias from the myths.
鈥淨uite a lot of what we think we know about them is gossip and rumor put about by their enemies,鈥� Dunant said during her Post interview. 鈥淭he mud stuck.鈥�
However, the Borgias weren鈥檛 innocent, either. Dunant notes that 鈥渢he Borgias are as badly behaved as a lot of other people, possibly in some cases worse.鈥� Rodrigo Borgia did use his papal role to try to put his children in positions of power.聽
Lucrezia's bent for poisoning people, however, was 鈥渘ot true,鈥� according to the , and contrary to some stories, she didn鈥檛 sleep with her father or brother.
鈥淏lood,鈥� which received positive reviews from The (writer Liesl Schillinger said Dunant 鈥渢ransforms the blackhearted Borgias and the conniving courtiers and cardinals of Renaissance Europe into fully rounded characters, brimming with life and lust鈥�) and (鈥淒unant鈥檚 biggest and best work to date鈥�), among others, is only the most recent work to look at the infamous family. A Showtime series titled 鈥淭he Borgias鈥� starred Jeremy Irons as Rodrigo, beginning in 2011 and ending last month. (Seasons ran for one or two months.)
In addition, the second installment in 鈥淎ssassin鈥檚 Creed鈥� video game series, 2009鈥檚 鈥淎ssassin鈥檚 Creed II,鈥� featured Rodrigo as one of its main villains.
No matter the form of our fascination, Dunant says the Borgias are more complicated than we once thought.
鈥淭here was a great deal more depth and nuance and subtlety and things of interest about the Borgias than our old version of how they used to be,鈥� she said.
