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| Jeremy Irons as Pope Alexander VI |
One of my favorite things about
April, besides the glorious boughs of cascading wisteria to be seen (and smelt)
all over Rome, is that it heralds the start of one of my favorite guilty pleasures, television drama, The Borgias. Following the life of the most
notorious pope in history, The Borgias chronicles the intrigues, scandal, and
corruption of the 15th-century Vatican court, featuring plenty of greed,
violence and impermissible sex.
Jeremy Irons stars as Rodrigo
Borgia, aka Pope Alexander VI, the epitome of corruption, hypocrisy and
debauchery, a part he plays with obvious relish. Yet he is somehow able to turn
the papa cattivo (evil pope, as he is remembered) into a lovable bad boy, whom
we can’t help rooting for. Although the gaunt and ruggedly handsome Irons may
be physically contradictory to the actual historic figure (fat and ugly), he
does capture the inner qualities the Borgia pope possessed in abundance:
magnetism, sensuality, and undeniable charisma. While critics have claimed that
The Borgias dulls in comparison to the (even racier, if possible!) German
version, Borgia, I can’t imagine a better cast, or one with more titillating
chemistry.
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| The cast of Showtime's The Borgias |
Now, I know April is still two
months away, but, for some strange reason, I’ve got that family of miscreants
on the mind right now, and I just can’t wait for Season Three to begin! Last
night I went back and watched the first episode of Season One, which features
the conclave of 1492 and the election of Rodrigo Borgia as pope. I couldn’t
help comparing the climate of tension, suspicion and political intrigue
depicted in that episode to what is going on right across town, in this, the
21st century.
Scandal! Rumors! (Almost)
unprecedented occurrences!
No pope has willingly given up his
position since 1294 when Celestine V, who had not even participated in his own
election, and who had very reluctantly accepted the tiara, resigned after only
five months to return to his life as a hermit. Despite a few hints that
Benedict XVI may have dropped over the past few years, everyone was shocked when he announced on 11 February that he would be resigning, effective
28 February. While I won’t comment on my suppositions as to why the pope has
chosen to resign (I prefer not to get too political on this blog), from the
church’s official line to the most disparaging journalists, and everywhere in
between, everyone has an opinion. Rumors are swirling and many of them are not
pretty.
The headline in this morning’s La Repubblica read, “Sesso e carriera, i ricatti in Vaticano dietro la rinuncia di Benedetto XVI”
(Sex and career: the Vatican extortion behind the resignation of Benedict
XVI). With the “Vatileaks” debacle early last year that saw the pope’s butler
thrown into a medieval prison, the on-going sex abuse scandals, accusations of
money-laundering, and now this, who needs the hi-jinks of Alexander VI,
Lucrezia Borgia and Giulia Farnese? We’ve got enough disrepute to rival the
Borgia pope himself.
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| Jeremy Irons as Pope Alexander VI and Lotte Verbeek as Giulia Farnese |
Over 500 years have passed from the
time of the Borgia pope, but has life in Italy really changed that much? This
is a question I have asked myself many times since I moved here and began
studying Renaissance Rome and papal history. With the secrecy and intrigue
within the Vatican, the rampant corruption on every level of society, a political
system that still gives credence to buffoons like Berlusconi, and a class divide that is
turning into an impassable chasm, sometimes I feel it hasn’t changed at all.
Case in point: When a young priest
secured the undivided attentions of his delicious teenage sister, Giulia Farnese, for the newly crowned Alexander VI, the grateful pontiff thanked him
with a coveted cardinal’s hat (the key to wealth and power in Renaissance
Italy). Not surprisingly, Cardinal Farnese became pope himself in his time,
although he could never shake the ridiculous circumstances of his rise to
power, and was laughingly referred to as Cardinal Petticoat.
This could be likened to the case of
the 25-year-old showgirl with (surprise surprise) no political experience, who
was nevertheless elected to Italian parliament thanks to her inclusion on the
ticket of the president of the region of Lombardia. How did she end up on that
ticket? It seems it was “wanted at any cost” by then-premier Berlusconi. Don’t
worry, she didn’t serve long; she was eventually indicted for her part in
providing him with an underage prostitute.
This is just one example, but
parallels between Renaissance Rome and today’s Rome can be drawn with sickening
ease. With the parliamentary elections this weekend, it’s looking more and more
like nothing is going to be changing in the near future. So I suggest you grab
a bowl of popcorn and find a good seat. The new season of The Borgias may not
start until April, but with the pope’s resignation and the upcoming conclave,
we are about to witness a piece of history, and Showtime’s got nothing on it.
Stay tuned for more posts as I follow the Pope's (nearly) unprecedented resignation and the exciting conclave that will follow!
