During his lifetime, della Palla “acquired” many remarkable masterpieces, Pollaiuolo’s Labours of Hercules, Pontormo’s Raising of Lazarus, Andrea del Sarto’s Abraham Sacrificing Isaac and Charity, and Rosso Fiorentino’s Moses and the Daughters of Jethro, to name but a few. Most, if not all, found their way to France and the hands of its king, and many still hang upon the walls of the Louvre. When Florence fell and the Medici returned as ducal rulers, Battista della Palla was imprisoned for life in the fortress of Pisa, where he was murdered in 1532. Though there is no evidence of a marriage, his letters speak of a love that ruled his heart.
Elected to the Nove della Milizia, the Militia Nine, Michelangelo served Florence as Governor General of Fortifications. He designed and engineered the defenses of Florence against the forces of the emperor and the Medici pope. Once the family of despots had been restored to power, Pope Clement eventually pardoned Michelangelo, having earlier dubbed him as an outlaw, and returned his properties to him, those in both Florence and Rome.
At the age of sixty-two, Michelangelo Buonarroti began three years of work on one of the greatest of all his masterpieces, The Last Judgment. Essayed upon the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel, it was the largest ever completed in a single fresco at the time. Many say he worked as a man possessed, answering a call from above.
From the description of symptoms Michelangelo presented with in the last days of his life, it seems clear he suffered a series of strokes before dying, at the astounding age of eighty-eight, of a slow fever.
Michelangelo penned many a verse throughout the course of his years. In one, he divulged the sum of his life, and that of this humble author, with but a few short words:
If I was made for art, from childhood given
A prey for burning beauty to devour,
I blame the mistress I was born to serve.
ON DANTE AND THE LEGEND OF ZELDA
Dante Alighieri wrote his Commedia between 1308 and 1321, finishing just months before his passing. The work was dubbed “divine” in 1555. The epic poem has been translated more than 120 times. The seminal translation, and the one used for the basis and creative inspiration of this book, was that done by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1867.
Dante’s work was indeed intended as allegory, but in my efforts to pay homage to The Legend of Zelda—to combine the inspiration of both—I took Dante’s symbolism and gave it a physical construct, while simultaneously endeavoring to stay faithful to his symbolism; a daunting task. I encourage anyone interested in the Divine Comedy to reread the three passages depicted in this book with the Divine Comedy as a companion and compare the challenges to the appropriate passages. See how they were translated, and imagine how those not alluded to might have been done. It is an amusing exercise that may lend a greater understanding of this book and the Divine Comedy.
There may be many who don’t know of The Legend of Zelda, who may scoff when they learn it’s a video game. But as pastimes will, this particular game has brought me great joy. I started playing the real-time adventure in its first incarnation in the late 1980s and have since played every version that has appeared on every platform. It has provided me with hours and hours of stimulating escapism in a virtual world where the burdens, difficulties and duties of my own life could not find me. And yet it challenged me and brought me the thrill of conquest. It afforded me a wonderful environment in which to bond with my sons, one that grows ever stronger. I feel no shameful compunction in offering an homage of gratitude to something—video game or not—that has given so much to me.
Throughout the Divine Comedy, there is the constant and frequent use of the number three and multiples of three. Dante’s intention was to honor the three people who make up the one God: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. In this book, the number three is equally as dominant, but for my own reasons.
In The Legend of Zelda, the symbol of the triforce—three triangles within a larger triangle—denotes the characteristics of a true hero, characteristics worthy of aspiration: wisdom, strength, and courage. I’ve used threes not only as symbols of these Zelda traits, but also because of other connotations the number represents for me. Like Dante, I have faith in the concepts of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. I also believe in the power of Ask, Believe, and Receive. And, most important of all, I am resolute to the compass points of my world, the one formed with my two sons.
THE ART: WHAT EXISTS AND WHAT DOES NOT
Praxiteles was a sculptor who lived in the fourth century BC. He loved a woman, the Thespian courtesan Phryne, who, it is written, was the inspiration for much of his work, him and many others. Pliny the Elder wrote a great deal about Praxiteles, including the possibility that there were two sculptors of the same name, one possibly the other’s grandson. While Praxiteles was the first to sculpt the nude female form in a life-sized sculpture, the relic searched for in this book is a creation of this author alone.
Giotto di Bondone was born in Florence in 1267, the son of a farmer who was discovered by another great Florentine painter, Cimabue. Giotto created hundreds of paintings and frescoes in a style that did change the methodology of painting, evolving it from the crude traditional Byzantine style, and earning him the moniker of the father of the Renaissance movement in painting. He was a contemporary and companion of Dante Alighieri, a friendship that earned Giotto a mention in the Divine Comedy. There is no work called Legatus Praxiteles Canonicus (The Legend of Praxiteles’s Legacy); that, too, is of the author’s creation. Giotto died in 1337.
The Madonna with Child and Saint Giovannino (Madonna Col Bambino e San Giovannino) is attributed to Sebastiano Mainardi (1460–1513) and hangs in the Palazzo Vecchio Museum in the Sala d’Ercole. It exists as described in this book, including the “air ship” in the top right corner.
Carlo Crivelli (1435–1495) painted The Annunciation, with Saint Emidius in 1486, a painting that depicts a beam of light sent from a round object in the sky down upon the head of Mary. It hangs in the National Gallery in London.
Rows of round, hovering objects fill the sky in The Miracle of the Snow: Foundation of Santa Maria Maggiore by Masolino da Panicale (1383–1447), which hangs in the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples, Italy.
Many, many more paintings that include inexplicable objects in the air exist, most of which were rendered during the Renaissance period.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books:
Bell, Rudolph. 1999. How to Do It: Guides to Good Living for Renaissance Italians. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Brucker, Gene. 1998. Florence: The Golden Age, 1138–1737. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Castiglione, Baldesar. 1967. Book of the Courtier. Trans. G. Bull. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
Cohen, Elizabeth, and Thomas V. Cohen. 2001. Daily Life in Renaissance Italy. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Michelangelo. 1987. Michelangelo, Life, Letters, and Poetry. Trans. George Bull. New York: Oxford University Press.
Ramsden, E. 1963. The Letters of Michelangelo. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Stone, Irving. 1962. I, Michelangelo, Sculptor. New York: Doubleday.
Thornton, Peter. 1991. The Italian Renaissance Interior, 1400–1600. New York: Abrams.
Vasari, Giorgio. 1991. Lives of the Artists. Trans. Julia Conway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella. New York: Oxford University Press.
Von Däniken, Erich. 1970. Chariots of the Gods. Trans. Michale Heron. New York: Berkley Books.
Internet Sources:
The National Gallery
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk
The Palazzo Ducale in Mantua
http://www.fermi.mn.it/ducale/index.htm
Pastena Caves:
http://www.grottepastena.it/
Video Sources:
“Closer Encounters.” The History Channel Web site.
http://www.history.com/shows/ancient-aliens/episodes/season-1 (accessed September 2010)
A READING GROUP GUIDE<
br />
THE KING’S AGENT
Donna Russo Morin
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
The following questions are intended to
enhance your group’s reading of
THE KING’S AGENT.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. In the first chapter, we are introduced to Battista della Palla and his activities. In the very acts he commits, we are privy to the dichotomy of those actions and of the man himself. Discuss the contradiction, how it is exposed, and what it reveals about Battista’s character.
2. In Chapter 3, the relationship between the marquess of Mantua and the Lady Aurelia is established, but with some distinct ambiguities. What are these incongruities and what do they reveal about the characters? What specific instances can be cited to attest to the disparities of their relationship?
3. The political climate of Florence, as well as that between all the Italian states, dictates much of the story. Discuss the most prevalent conditions of the era. What are Battista’s opinions and attitudes and how do they shape his actions?
4. When Battista and his men first receive the message from François I, Pompeo describes the sculptor Praxiteles, saying, “It is oft told that he loved the same woman for all his life, modeled many of his works after her in fact, but they never married nor had children.” Whose life does this foreshadow? Whom then, can it be assumed, did Praxiteles love?
5. In Chapter 6, Pope Clement says, “When you are trapped in the middle, either way may lead to peril.” Between whom is the pope trapped? What actions and decisions have brought him to this perilous position? In addition to these two forces, what other group is the pope encountering with difficulties?
6. Chapter 10 includes detailed descriptions and discussions of artworks containing strange and seemingly inexplicable objects in the air. In the author’s note on The Art are listed the locations of these pieces. After studying the paintings, discuss possible explanations of what these objects are and why they may exist in the artworks.
7. Throughout the book, the Lady Aurelia struggles to serve her duty and her purpose while attempting to experience the joy and fun that life can offer. What are her duty and her purpose? Did they change as the story unfolded? Do people encounter the same struggle in today’s world?
8. In their final challenge in the Hell below the palazzo, Battista is confronted by the image of his uncle, whose evil actions brought about his death and that of Battista’s father. Discuss some reasons why the task included such a personal challenge. What might Aurelia have meant when she said, “Your love for him has doused his flame. You were the only one who could”?
9. Aurelia’s covert visitation in Chapter 15 convinces Battista that her true motive for embarking on the quest with him was not to assist him, but to thwart him. What other actions of hers could be interpreted in a similar manner?
10. Also in Chapter 15, as Battista agonizes over his suspicions about Aurelia his thoughts are described as follows: “Like specters—one by the name of anxiety, the other agitation—two women, though they were one and the same, stood in his mind.” Though the narrative speaks of Aurelia, of what else do they serve as a symbolic foreshadowing?
11. In Chapter 17, a reason for the broken relationship between Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci is introduced, an argument over what they considered to be the preeminent art form, painting or sculpture. Which artist supported which medium? Other reasons for the disparaging relationship are suggested. Discuss the validity of each.
12. Discuss the intention of the description of Battista as “... a man who stooped to thievery with great frequency he knew little of dishonesty.” What of him does it most succinctly describe?
13. Discuss the meaning of the challenge Battista and Aurelia endured in Purgatory, the one explained by Aurelia’s words: “Dante tells us, through Virgil, that the value of material possessions decreases with sharing while the value of spiritual possessions increases, but only if of a balanced nature, so that one does not feel beholden to the other.”
14. “ ‘He will delight in your beauty,’ Battista told her, then shrugged. ‘As he does mine. It is his way.’ ” Discuss this line about Michelangelo from Chapter 21; what does it reveal about the artist? How does it relate to the line “No talent so vast could overcome the misery of living a life in constant conflict with itself.”
15. Discuss what Michelangelo meant when he said, “It was an ascension that felled me, I assure you.” How did Michelangelo’s complex religious and spiritual beliefs affect his relationship with his art and with the popes and the Vatican? Would it have had any consequence in his relationship with Aurelia?
16. Discuss the ramifications of Aurelia’s statement in Chapter 29, at the test of the faithful in front of the renderings of Jesus Christ. “Life puts before each human the tests belonging to each life. Here is one of yours.” Why was this challenge so particular a test to Battista? What did his choice reveal about himself and his faith? What was the implication behind the sentence that read: “It came to him, the truth of all mankind, no more readily apparent as when Jesus hung on the cross.”
17. What did Aurelia mean when she said, “It was not meant to be stopped,” in Chapter 33, when Battista condemned her for not doing anything to stop the sack of Rome? How does her answer relate back to a previous discussion they had concerning fate and destiny?
18. “Their love was a brutal thing, painful by its very nature, and yet more beautiful than anything they had ever known.” Discuss the true meaning of these words, found in Chapter 34.
If you enjoyed The King’s Agent, treat yourself to more of Donna Russo Morin’s delicious and distinctive brand of historical fiction.
Read on for a taste of
TO SERVE A KING
A Kensington Trade Paperback on sale at your favorite bookstore.
One
It is the little victories,
That bring us the big ones.
—Ignatius de Loyola (1491–1556)
1520
Beneath an unmerciful sun, the squire dropped the flag with a flourish. Riders kicked at glistening flanks; horses charged forward with little between them save the narrow wooden poles of the lists. Hooves thundered upon the jousting field; the pounding boomed in the ears. Dirt clumps flew up into the air as if tossed in celebration. Weighted and encased in full armor, plumes on helmets bobbing with every gallop, the combatants raised their lances with steely determination, eyes locked upon the impending opponent as they cradled their weapons in the crook between bicep and chest.
Nobleman, courtier, commoner, and peasant jumped to their feet in the overflowing, banner-festooned stands, holding their breath as the two kings bore down upon each other. The impact, when it came, burst out like two worlds colliding. Lance met armor, snapping with a riotous crash and a splintering of wood, and the air ruptured with gasps and cheers. Each competitor had broken his lance upon the other; yet both had kept their saddle. The match was a draw, again.
François quit his black steed with deft agility, tugging off the cumbersome helmet with agitation. Beneath it, his thick chestnut hair lay matted with sweat to his face and jawbone.
“Well done, Your Majesty,” Montmorency called out as he approached, raising his voice above the unabated cheering. Beside him, a slight man brandished a satisfied sneer as he scissored his short legs, hurrying to keep up.
With a sidelong look of annoyance, the young king of France scoffed, struggling to remove his gauntlets.
“Do not patronize me, Monty.” Finally relieved of them, François threw the thick, padded leather gloves to the ground, words slithering out between grinding teeth. “Damn it all, I cannot best the man.”
“That is true,” Philippe de Chabot said as he picked up the gloves and slapped them together to dislodge the fresh mud. “But neither can he best you. There are worse ways to spend a day of sport.”
In the bright sunlight, François squinted slanted eyes at his companions, his valued friends since childho
od, his closest advisers since becoming king five years ago, and felt the heat of his ire cool. Perhaps there were other ways to triumph over this adversary yet.
In Henry VIII, François found everything he detested in a king—a hedonist obsessed with the quest for power and pleasure—and yet a part of him strove to imitate this nemesis whom he would never admit respecting, though respect Henry he did. The faults François railed against in his archrival were ones others attributed to François himself. How disgusted he would be to know it.
“Besides,” Chabot continued with a shrug of his small shoulders, “you are much better looking.”
Monty barked a laugh as François snickered, cuffing Chabot in the arm.
“You must pay your respects to your opponent.” The gruff, aged voice doused the conviviality of the young men. Chancellor Duprat approached, skinny legs waddling under a rotund body. “King Henry awaits your hand, Sire.”
“Of course.” François accepted the intrusion and instruction without argument. Accompanied by his triumvirate of men, he stalked across the rutted tourney field.
“Well ridden, Your Majesty,” he called as he approached his challenger, outstretched hand in the lead.
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