My last Duchess - JVM

My Last Duchess

1^st person seen from Fra Pandolf point of view:

I was the only one who knew the true story of Ferrara’s last Duchess. When I paint a picture of a person I learn more about them than anyone telling their story. Ferrara’s last Duchess was surely worth a portrait. This job was not work for me. She was exactly the reason why I paint. True beauty and aesthetic captured in a young girl’s body. She knew she was adored by all men and her young body could bring her things most girls would only dream about. But she did not know her true potential yet and she would not live to see the day where she would truly flourish. Ferrara knew that his young wife was extra ordinary and that he was envied by his rich and important friends due to his Duchess. What I knew was that she possessed more depth, intelligence and kindness than Ferrara was capable of imagining. I saw it in her eyes as I painted every little detail in them. The depth of her eyes would never stop. Looking into them could make me dizzy. Painting her portrait gave me the opportunity to be the best version of me. Her beauty and uniqueness was what made my painting so famous – even a long time after both I and the Duchess were death. The saddest thing was that it was her beauty which killed her. Ferrara became blinded and jealous and went mad as his Duchess grew more and more beautiful and unique. At last he was so blinded that he could not see how much she loved bearing his name and he himself killed her. In this way he made sure that he would never loose her and that he could keep her locked inside his castle forever. The thing is that it was not the duchess beautiful appearance that made her unique – it was her depth and that is the only thing I could not paint in a portrait.