The Marriage Portrait Study Guide

Born in Northern Ireland, Maggie O’Farrell grew up in Wales and Scotland, where she faced discrimination because of her Irish heritage. At eight years old, she missed over a year of school while hospitalized with encephalitis, an event she revisits in her memoir I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death (2017). O’Farrell studied English literature at New Hall, University of Cambridge, where she met her eventual husband, writer William Sutcliffe. She has worked as a journalist and literary editor, in addition to teaching creative writing at the University of Warwick in Coventry and Goldsmiths College in London. The majority of O’Farrell’s work can be characterized as historical fiction, including her novel Hamnet (2020), a fictionalized account of William Shakespeare’s family life, which won the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Awards for fiction in 2020. Other honors include the Betty Trask Award, given to her debut novel After You’d Gone (2000), and the Costa Novel Award, awarded to The Hand That First Held Mine (2010). The Marriage Portrait (2022) was shortlisted for the 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction. O’Farrell lives in Edinburgh with her husband and three children. Having struggled with a stammer since her youth, O’Farrell finds freedom in writing.

The Italian Renaissance was a period during the 15th and 16th centuries during which the country experienced a cultural revival, characterized by significant achievements in the realms of art, literature, music, philosophy, science, and technology. The region of Tuscany and the city of Florence, in particular, is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance. The Medici family rose to prominence in Florence in the 15th century by monopolizing the banking industry and consolidating their power through advantageous marriages. In 1537, Cosimo I de’ Medici—Lucrezia’s father—became Duke of Florence after his predecessor, Alessandro de’ Medici, was assassinated. Though Cosimo was from a different branch of the Medici family than previous dukes, his authoritative rule firmly restored power to the Medici line. Cosimo was a great patron of the arts, creating the Uffizi Gallery—one of the world’s most prominent art collections—and commissioning beautiful gardens for his home. He married Eleonora di Toledo, a Spanish noblewoman, who bore him 11 children, including Lucrezia. Not much is known of the real Lucrezia de’ Medici’s life, as she died at the age of 16. Many speculate that the young duchess was murdered by her husband, Alfonso II d’Este, Duke of Ferrara. Such rumors inspired Robert Browning’s 1842 poem “My Last Duchess,” a dramatic monologue in which the duke displays a portrait of his deceased wife to an emissary, hinting that he murdered her. The only known portrait of Lucrezia was painted by the artist Bronzino.

Similar to The Marriage Portrait (2022), Maggie O’Farrell’s previous novel, Hamnet (2020), explores the lives of people existing in history’s peripheral view, this time imagining the lives of Shakespeare’s family in the wake of his son’s death. Focusing on the playwright’s wife, Agnes, this novel centralizes the often overlooked experiences of women, recalling O’Farrell’s treatment of Lucrezia, Sofia, and Emilia in The Marriage Portrait. Lauren Groff’s 2021 novel Matrix also centers the female perspective, detailing the life of a formidable 12th-century abbess named Marie de France, whose grand vision for the sisters in her care leads them to prosperity. For readers desiring more stories involving Renaissance artists, Susan Vreeland’s The Passion of Artemisia (2001) delves into the life of Italian baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi, whose captivating art and bold existence led her to become the first woman admitted to the Academy of the Arts in Drawing in Florence, an organization founded by Cosimo I de’ Medici. For an alternative perspective on the Medici family, Denise Mina’s Three Fires (2023) follows a fanatical friar on a quest to burn all the opulent luxuries that tempted his devotees to sin. Tracy Chevalier’s acclaimed 1999 novel, Girl with a Pearl Earring, takes a closer look at another mysterious portrait, this time of a young Dutch woman the same age as Lucrezia, whose relationship with the artist—Johannes Vermeer—becomes complicated. Lastly, for readers looking for court intrigue and political dynasties, Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall (2009) investigates the turbulent years of Henry VIII’s reign over England, including his murderous intentions for his wife, Anne Boleyn.