Francesca da Rimini

Francesca da Rimini, fl. 13th cent., Italian beauty, daughter of Guido da Polenta of Ravenna. She was married by proxy to the hunchbacked lord of Rimini, Gianciotto Malatesta; the proxy, Gianciotto's young and handsome brother Paolo, became Francesca's lover. Gianciotto, discovering their guilt, killed them. The story is immortalized in Dante's Divine Comedy and is the subject of many other literary and artistic works and of Tchaikovsky's symphonic poem.

Francesca da Rimini or Francesca da Polenta (1255 – 1285) was the daughter of Guido da Polenta, lord of Ravenna. She was a historical contemporary of Dante Alighieri, who portrayed her as a character in the Divine Comedy.

Arranged marriage

Guido I da Polenta had been at war with the Malatesta family. When a peace was negotiated, Guido wanted to solidify it by marrying his daughter Francesca to the Malatestan heir, Giovanni Malatesta (Gianciotto), son of Malatesta da Verucchio, lord of Rimini. Giovanni was brave but lame and deformed. Guido knew Francesca would refuse Giovanni, so the wedding was performed by proxy through Giovanni's handsome brother, Paolo.

Francesca fell in love with Paolo and was unaware of the deception until the morning after the wedding day.

Francesca and Paolo were seduced by reading the story of Lancelot and Guinevere, and became lovers. Subsequently they were surprised and murdered by Giovanni.

The name "Francesca" became popular among aristocrats.

Related works

• Dante, Divine Comedy. (Inferno, Canto V), (1308-1321)
• Joseph Anton Koch, Paolo and Francesca Surprised by Gianciotto, 1805-10. Watercolor, Thorvaldsen Museum, Copenhagen.
• Silvio Pellico, Francesca da Rimini. (1818). Tragedy.
• Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Paolo and Francesca (1819). Oil on canvas. Musée des Beux-Arts, Angers, France.
• Ary Scheffer, Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta appraised by Dante and Virgil (1835). Oil on canvas. Wallace Collection, London.
• George Henry Boker, Francesca da Rimini. (1853). Play.
• Ary Scheffer, Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta appraised by Dante and Virgil (1855). Oil on canvas. Louvre, Paris.
• Gustave Doré, Francesca da Rimini (illustration to Dante's Inferno, 1857).
• Alexandre Cabanel, The Death of Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta (1870). Oil on canvas. Musée d'Orsay, Paris.
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Francesca da Rimini. Symphonic Poem (1876).
• Auguste Rodin, The Kiss. Marble sculpture (1888), Musée Rodin, Paris.
• Gabriele d'Annunzio, Francesca da Rimini. Tragedy written (1901) for d'Annunzio's mistress, Eleonora Duse.
• Francis Marion Crawford, Francesca da Rimini. (1902). Play.
• Sergei Rachmaninoff, Francesca da Rimini. Opera (1906).
• Riccardo Zandonai, Francesca da Rimini. Opera (1914).

References

• Singleton, Charles S. (1970). The Divine Comedy, Inferno/Commentary. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-01895-2.

External links

• World of Dante Multimedia website that includes gallery of images of the Paolo and Francesca episode.
• WisdomPortal Includes images of related artworks.