As you may have gathered, I thoroughly enjoyed the school’s 140th birthday recently. I went home thinking about history and tradition, continuity and change. I love the fact that Curious Minds, Generous Hearts, and Adventurous Spirits run through Talbot Heath’s DNA. I arrived home to see one of my favourite novels lying around and made one of those tangential links that unexpectedly strike from time to time; between our ‘adventurous spirits’ and the main character of the novel, a 16-year-old girl called Lucrezia.
This abstract connection inspired my assembly last week, where I enjoyed sharing some uniquely beautiful and inspirational writing.
The Marriage Portrait, by Maggie O’Farrell is set in 16th century Florence and revolves around Lucrezia de Medici, the third daughter of the Grand Duke of Florence. The young Lucrezia is regarded by her family as feral and untameable, and is left to her own devices in the family palazzo, drawing, writing, listening at doors, and sneaking into her father’s menagerie to observe the exotic animals.
She is then thrust into a confusing new life by a dynastic marriage and must join her husband in a strange palace where she is not universally welcomed. As she sits for a painting intended to preserve her image for posterity, it becomes clear to her that she must conduct herself in a way that fits in with everyone else’s expectations, and she becomes increasingly unhappy with the weight of this narrowing reality.
The novel explores several timeless and relatable themes around power and voice, being watched and judged, growing up too fast and reading signs and trusting your own instincts.
The passage I read occurs early in the book. Lucrezia is 7 years old. In her room in the dead of night, she hears noises in the dark courtyard outside. Looking out, she sees her father’s men with carts and mules, and on one of the carts is a cage; and in the cage is a tigress, intended for the Palazzo’s menagerie. Lucrezia is captivated by the sight:
“The tigress didn’t so much pace as pour herself, as if her very essence was molten, simmering, like the ooze from a volcano…The animal was orange, burnished gold, fire made flesh: she was power and anger, she was vicious and exquisite; she carried on her body the barred marks of a prison, as if she had been branded for exactly this, as if captivity had been her destiny all along.”
It’s amazing how far you can go with a moment of random inspiration! The combination of Talbot Heath’s ‘adventurous spirits,’ coupled with a favourite novel, took us to an assembly on beauty and literature via 16th Century Florence, and all on a normal Tuesday morning!
Curious Minds, Generous Hearts, Adventurous Spirits
With best wishes,
Ross Cameron, Talbot Heath Head
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