The Marriage Portrait Summary

The Marriage Portrait is a nonlinear narrative. The novel alternates between chapters detailing the timeline of Lucrezia’s life (beginning from her conception) and shorter chapters that begin at the moment in which she realizes her husband, Alfonso, is trying to kill her.

In 1561, Lucrezia—the Duchess of Ferrara—arrives at an isolated fortress that the Duke, Alfonso, claims is his family’s hunting lodge. Quite suddenly, over dinner, Lucrezia realizes that her husband intends to murder her. Haunted by this intuitive knowledge, she reflects that her murder ought to be “done well,” as her father—Cosimo I de’ Medici—is a suspicious man.

Flashing back to 1544, Lucrezia’s mother—Eleonora—is in the map room of the Medici family’s palace in Florence when her husband, Cosimo, seduces her. Later, Eleonora will regret this moment, as she blames her own distraction at the time of Lucrezia’s conception for the child’s restless disposition. Lucrezia ends up being so wild that her mother temporarily sends her to be nursed in the kitchens. Though she eventually returns to the nursery, run by Eleonora’s own nurse Sofia, Lucrezia is always ostracized by her four older siblings. A creative child, she loves to draw and becomes captivated by a wild tiger Cosimo acquires for his palace menagerie in 1552. Lucrezia reaches through the bars to stroke the tigress’ fur, overcome with admiration for the powerful beast. Later, the tiger is killed by Cosimo’s lions, causing Lucrezia to fall terribly ill. She only recovers when Eleonora allows her to take drawing lessons, which gives her hope.

Returning to the scene in the fortress in 1561, Alfonso encourages Lucrezia—who has recently been sick—to eat a dinner of venison baked in wine. Lucrezia hides much of the food in her lap, reflecting on how she tried to escape this marriage by appealing to her father. Cosimo and Eleonora’s love is sincere and respectful. Lucrezia only saw Alfonso once before their wedding, when he was still betrothed to her oldest sister, Maria. Seeing her holding a pet mouse, he had made a silly face imitating the animal. In the present, Alfonso leads Lucrezia to her chambers. Waking in the night beside him, she doubts her earlier suspicion that he means to harm her. She sketches plans for a series of fantastical, miniature paintings.

Flashing back to 1557, Maria suddenly falls ill and dies. Lucrezia overhears Cosimo and his advisor, Vitelli, arranging for her to marry Alfonso—the son of the late Duke of Ferrara—instead. Panicked, Lucrezia tells Sofia what she overheard. In order to delay the wedding, since Lucrezia is only 12, Sofia tells Vitelli that the girl has not yet menstruated, meaning she cannot produce an heir. Having already started her period, Lucrezia knows that Sofia lied to protect her, and she manages to keep her menstruation a secret for almost a year, until Eleonora spots her stained pajamas. Wedding preparations begin, although Alfonso’s military involvement causes another delay. He sends Lucrezia betrothal gifts: a beautiful painting of a stone marten and an immaculate ruby necklace. Lucrezia is touched that he remembered her love for animals and painting.

On her wedding day in 1560, Lucrezia is dressed in the gown meant for Maria. During the ceremony, Alfonso’s demeanor is warm and playful, and Lucrezia begins to hope that the marriage will not be so terrible. However, on the journey to Ferrara, Alfonso abandons Lucrezia to deal with court business, leaving her alone with his servants and her maid, Emilia. There is a rumor that Alfonso’s mother, the widowed duchess, is planning to return to France in defiance of her son’s orders, suggesting political dysfunction.

At Alfonso’s country villa, Lucrezia enjoys the beauty of nature and newfound freedom. Alfonso is mostly kind and understanding, insisting that she will have a marriage portrait painted soon. However, he also has moments of coldness and cruelty, making Lucrezia feel that he is two different people in one body. Alfonso breaks his promise not to hurt Lucrezia during intercourse, and chastens her for daring to question his advisor, Baldassare. Baldassare clearly dislikes Lucrezia, and he reveals that her primary purpose is to secure Alfonso’s control of the province by giving him a child. Emilia reveals to Lucrezia that she is her “milk-sister” from the kitchens, as they were both nursed by Emilia’s mother. The two young women even look similar.

Flashing forward to the fortress in 1561, Lucrezia wakes with a terrible illness that makes her sure Alfonso poisoned her. Surviving the night, she wakes to find Emilia, who has followed her to the fortress without Alfonso’s knowledge. Knowing she must keep Emilia’s presence a secret, Lucrezia resolves to confront Alfonso as he receives her marriage portrait from Il Bastianino, the artist who traveled here with Emilia.

During her stay at the villa, a pair of artist apprentices visit Lucrezia to make preliminary sketches for her portrait. Finding one of them—Jacopo—unconscious and alone, Lucrezia saves his life using honey water. Jacopo and his companion Maurizio seem to dislike the two-faced Alfonso. Alfonso brings Lucrezia home to his castle in Ferrara, where she meets his two sisters—friendly Elisabetta and irritable Nunciata. Lucrezia spends her days posing for her portrait with Il Bastianino and Jacopo. During one session, Alfonso calls Lucrezia his “first” duchess, unsettling her. Elisabetta is having an affair with the head guardsman, Ercole Contrari. When Alfonso discovers this, he orders Contrari to be strangled to death in front of his remorseless sister. When Emilia tells Lucrezia of this violence, the young Duchess seeks solace outdoors, pacing and eating nothing. Hearing of his wife’s strange behavior, Alfonso calls a physician to ascertain whether Lucrezia is pregnant. But she is not, and Alfonso worries that her rebellious spirit is to blame. The physician prescribes a strict regimen of rest and isolation. Despite this, Lucrezia does not conceive, likely because Alfonso himself is infertile. After months of trying, Alfonso quite suddenly suggests he and Lucrezia take a trip to the country, and he brings her to the fortress where the novel began.

In the fortress, picking up where the scene left off, the still-unwell Lucrezia makes her way downstairs to find Il Bastianino revealing her marriage portrait to Alfonso. The painting is stunning, showcasing Lucrezia’s beauty and indomitable spirit. She senses that Jacopo painted it. Jacopo secretly warns Lucrezia she is in danger and promises to prop the servant’s entrance open so she can escape the fortress. Later, Lucrezia leaves Emilia sleeping in her bed and makes her way to the kitchens, covertly passing Baldassare as he sneaks up the stairs. Finding the door propped as promised, she escapes into the woods. Alfonso and Baldassare suffocate Emilia, thinking she is Lucrezia, and the maid is buried under the Duchess’s title. Alfonso quickly makes plans to remarry. The narrative suggests that Lucrezia meets up with Jacopo and travels to another city in Italy, where she becomes a famous artist who paints hidden underpaintings featuring her own enigmatic face.