The Silent Duchess Read Online Free PDF Page A

and runs down towards the bottom of the canvas. Patiently they remain still for several minutes. But then it is Geraldo who creates a disturbance by giving Fiammetta a pinch. Fiammetta retaliates with a kick and suddenly they are both pushing, slapping and elbowing each other. Signoretto does not intervene to put Geraldo in his place, although as the eldest he has the right to do so.
    Marianna again dips her brush first in the white paint and then in the pink, while her eyes shift from the canvas to the group. There is something disembodied about this picture she is painting, something too polished, not quite real. It seems almost like one of those official miniatures which her lady mother's friends have had painted of themselves, all stiff and formal, in which the original vision remains only a distant memory.
    She says to herself she must concentrate on their personalities if she does not want them to slip through her fingers: Signoretto, who sees
    himself as a rival to his father, with his commanding ways and resonant laughter, and as protector of his mother who, whenever she sees father and son in conflict, watches them slyly, even with amusement. But her indulgent glances linger on her son with such intensity that it must be obvious to everybody. His father the Duke, however, is irritated: this boy not only looks astonishingly like him, but acts out his movements with more grace and assurance than he does himself. It is as if he had a mirror in front of him, a mirror that flatters him and at the same time reminds him that soon he will be painlessly replaced. Amongst other things it is Signoretto who is the eldest, and it is he who will carry on the family name. Towards his dumb sister Signoretto is usually protective, somewhat jealous of the attention their father gives her, sometimes looking down on her disabilities, sometimes using her as a pretext for demonstrating to the others his generous spirit, never quite sure where truth ends and play-acting begins.
    Next to him is Fiammetta in her nun's habit, her eyebrows like a pencilled line, her eyes too close together, her teeth irregular. She is not beautiful like Agata and for this reason she is destined for the convent. Even if she found a husband there could be no certainty of a marriage contract as there would be with a real beauty. In the highly coloured, twisted little face of the child there is already a look of rebellion against this fettered future, which she accepts defiantly while wearing the long narrow habit that smothers her womanhood.
    Carlo and Geraldo, fifteen and eleven, look as alike as twins. But one will end up in a monastery and the other will go into the dragoons. They are often dressed up as monk and soldier, Carlo in a miniature habit and Geraldo in a boy's uniform. Whenever they are in the garden, they amuse themselves by exchanging clothes and then rolling on the ground clasped together, ruining both the cream-coloured habit and the handsome uniform with its gold toggles. Carlo is greedy for spicy foods and sweets and has begun to grow plump. But he is also the most affectionate of the brothers towards Marianna, and often comes to look for her and hold her hand.
    Agata is the youngest and also the prettiest. A marriage contract has already been arranged for her
    which, without costing the family anything except a dowry of thirty thousand escudos, will enable them to extend their influence, to make useful connections and establish a wealthy lineage.
    When Marianna looks up to focus on her brothers and sisters she finds they have all vanished. They have taken advantage of her absorbed concentration on the canvas to slip away, counting on the fact that she will not be able to hear their giggling. She is just in time to catch a glimpse of Agata's skirt disappearing behind the lodge among the spikes of aloes.
    How can she get on with the painting now? She will have to dip into her memory, since she well knows that they will never come back to pose