I now pull back the curtain to show you this painting as a very special exception - my wife, she died young
Since her death she only smiles at me, you can see it So sweet, passionately, she looks Her eyes seem to be thirsty
also for the painter that is quite clear She was always very happy to see others
Everything and everyone charmed her and received her gratitude What difference could I make? And it got worse and worse
I had to restrain her and then all smiles stopped Now only in this painting Only as a painting
Poem "My Last Duchess" / "Italy" (1842, Robert Browning, collection "Dramatic Lyrics")
Alfonso II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, is a widower. His wife Lucrezia di Cosimo de' Medici died three years ago. He married her in 1558, when she was thirteen, and abandoned her in 1559. In 1564 he negotiates with Nikolaus Madruz, the envoy of the Count of Tyrol, for the marriage of Barbara, the eighth daughter of Emperor Ferdinand I.