The Marriage Portrait

At the castello in Ferrara in 1561, Lucrezia’s nausea and inertia following Elisabetta’s departure lead Nunciata to suspect that she is pregnant and summon Alfonso. Lucrezia, however, has a dream in which her future children are walking along with her but somehow eluding her.

Alfonso appears at her bedside, accompanied by a physician. The physician examines her and declares that while she is not pregnant, she has the appearance of a fertile body and constitution. The physician begins to advise Alfonso to have sex with her every five days, with periods of abstinence in between them to let his “seed be enriched and matured” (391). However, Alfonso insists that the doctor find something wrong with Lucrezia that means that she is preventing pregnancies through the sheer force of her will. The doctor is then forced to pronounce that Lucrezia has a hot, choleric temperament, which can be cooled down by herbal tinctures, a lack of excitement, and a lack of exposure to animal scenes and pictures. She is also to remain sedentary and cut off her ankle-length hair, which is abundant, “the color of fire,” and thus “very inflaming” (393).

As a result of this faux diagnosis, the servants banish Lucrezia’s animal studies, replace them with pictures of fruit, and administer the doctor’s herbal tinctures.