Me and Cesare :D
1/5/15 22:13![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daeva_neesanIt's been a while that I wanted to read this beautiful manga of Fuyumi Soryo dedicated to the figure of Cesare Borgia, and finally I managed to buy the whole complete thing :D
Truth is, I started to get intrigued by this character thanks to a book about architecture of the Reinassance period.
I'm not a fan of the Reinassance. The most of people when thinking about it are reminded of stuff like "The School of Athens", but the situation in Italy was far from that, even if artists from the period are absurdly famous, it doesn't mean that things were so rose-tintend... To be honest, all the crap that we're experiencing in modern times, one could say that it derives from the Reinassance.
Anyway, the book is quite cool (in case you're interested, it's "The Architecture of the Italian Reinassance" by Peter Murray) and it invited me to get to know more about this period, if just for a matter of common culture. Thus, I decided to buy a copy of "The Prince" of Machiavelli, a book that I wanted to read since for ever.
From here I started to get intrigued by Cesare, who's mentioned by Machiavelli as the perfect example of the "successful man" even if he couldn't avoid failure in the end.
img src="http://i1283.photobucket.com/albums/a543/daevakun3/daevakun3047/045_zpsfgrdbpqd.jpg">
We live the era and the history throught the eyes of Cesare (filtered by the eyes of a Japanese woman, on top of it!), so many aspects are probably naive in their resolution, but they are still interesting to read.
Cesare is described as peculiarly cultured and tollerant: he admires the Arabian culture and he's a protegee of Jews. Thinking about the Spanish origin of Cesare's family this doesn't make any sense, but I guess that this way Soryo-sensei was trying to figure out the deal with the influences of Arabian art in Southern Europe and the tolerant politics concerning Jews by Alexander VII.
Another thing that bothered me a bit, was the descriptions of the "nazioni" of the University of Pisa, groups of student separated by geographical origin.
I don't really think that French people were the rough ones while the Spanish guys were all that easy-going-- Even if it's revealed that in the end the whole Spanish group is nothing but bodyguards of Cesare, they really don't fit the historical mood.
Spain was the strongest and stricter monarchy of Europe, the idea of Spanish students acting like commoners and morons is not very trustworthy. Same going for the French group, depicted as anything but French-like (even if its most prominent characters are said to come from Marseille, which is generally "hotter" when it comes to people's characters, compared to the rest of France)...If anything they look like guys from Great Britain x'DDD
But let's take a peek to Cesare's family!
As you know, Cesare was one of the illegitimate sons of Rodrigo Borgia.
Illegittimate mostly because Rodrigo fathered them when he was a cardinal XD
In the manga, Rodrigo is quite the doting father, expecially with Cesare, nicknamed "my little emperor".
As the second son, unable to inherit, Cesare was destined to the religious life. Thinking that Rodrigo wanted to make a Cardinal out of him because he was his favourite and he was super-smart is wrong.
After the bros, is Lucrezia, here portrayed with Giulia Farnese:
Giulia is famous for being another mistress of Rodrigo.
Another relative introduced in the manga is a cousin of Cesare, Juan, nicknamed "Silenzio", "Silence", for his kind and quiet nature.
He acts a bit like Cesare's "voice of conscience".
Another semi-obscure character is Francesco Remolines:
If you're sick of shipping Cesare with Young pretty boys, you can use him too XD
But the top of the shipping is him, Michelotto da Corella, the famous killer in service of Cesare!
Michelotto is aware that he's a tool for Cesare too, but at the same time his attachment confuses him!!! On top of it, both of them have the same stubborn personality, so they are incompatible-- Yet so similar!!! I love them.
Where are the doujinshi about Cesare and Michelotto :/ ?
In the manga there are lots of people appearing who are worth a mention, but I would like to focus on just a few of them.
The first and foremost, the "Monsters of the Vatican":
I don't think that we have to wonder why Rodrigo is considered a "monster", even from his own son XD
It's an accurate and interesting depiction, though.
There are lots of interesting political sub-plots in the manga, most of them are interpretations, as in the end most of the truths behind the facts are still unknown (think about the Pazzi Conspiracy, central to the events of the manga), but sure they are constructed skillfully :D !
Raffaele Riario is another interesting character :D
Related to the Della Rovere, he was a supporter of Borgias and, the manga states, a "fan" of the Medicis.
In the manga he's portrayed as a gay with a morbid interest in Cesare--
The other "monster" is Giuliano della Rovere :D
In the manga he's said to descent from a poor family, so he's usually criticized by Rodrigo and his friends (in the picture is Ascanio Sforza) for his poor taste in things, and his actions as a "new rich".
I love the depiction of Giuliano in this manga!
Julius II is usually regarded as one of the worst Popes in history, but he's actually one of my favourites because of his sanguine character :o !!
Another character that I'd like to mention is Niccolò Machiavelli:
He's acting as a spy of the Della Rovere/Riario, and as disguise he used that of a Dominican friar.
Apparently Soryo-sensei likes to associate the friars to some kind of ninjas XD ! It's 1492 and Niccolò is still dressing as a ninj-AEHm a friar.
I hope that at some point of the manga he'll dress normally!
His relationship with Cesare is as ambiguous as it is in actual history.
He's strongly intrigued by the person, but Cesare doesn't seem to trust him...We'll see how it'll develop >o< !
Truth is, I started to get intrigued by this character thanks to a book about architecture of the Reinassance period.
I'm not a fan of the Reinassance. The most of people when thinking about it are reminded of stuff like "The School of Athens", but the situation in Italy was far from that, even if artists from the period are absurdly famous, it doesn't mean that things were so rose-tintend... To be honest, all the crap that we're experiencing in modern times, one could say that it derives from the Reinassance.
Anyway, the book is quite cool (in case you're interested, it's "The Architecture of the Italian Reinassance" by Peter Murray) and it invited me to get to know more about this period, if just for a matter of common culture. Thus, I decided to buy a copy of "The Prince" of Machiavelli, a book that I wanted to read since for ever.
From here I started to get intrigued by Cesare, who's mentioned by Machiavelli as the perfect example of the "successful man" even if he couldn't avoid failure in the end.
img src="http://i1283.photobucket.com/albums/a543/daevakun3/daevakun3047/045_zpsfgrdbpqd.jpg">
We live the era and the history throught the eyes of Cesare (filtered by the eyes of a Japanese woman, on top of it!), so many aspects are probably naive in their resolution, but they are still interesting to read.
Cesare is described as peculiarly cultured and tollerant: he admires the Arabian culture and he's a protegee of Jews. Thinking about the Spanish origin of Cesare's family this doesn't make any sense, but I guess that this way Soryo-sensei was trying to figure out the deal with the influences of Arabian art in Southern Europe and the tolerant politics concerning Jews by Alexander VII.
Another thing that bothered me a bit, was the descriptions of the "nazioni" of the University of Pisa, groups of student separated by geographical origin.
I don't really think that French people were the rough ones while the Spanish guys were all that easy-going-- Even if it's revealed that in the end the whole Spanish group is nothing but bodyguards of Cesare, they really don't fit the historical mood.
Spain was the strongest and stricter monarchy of Europe, the idea of Spanish students acting like commoners and morons is not very trustworthy. Same going for the French group, depicted as anything but French-like (even if its most prominent characters are said to come from Marseille, which is generally "hotter" when it comes to people's characters, compared to the rest of France)...If anything they look like guys from Great Britain x'DDD
But let's take a peek to Cesare's family!
As you know, Cesare was one of the illegitimate sons of Rodrigo Borgia.
Illegittimate mostly because Rodrigo fathered them when he was a cardinal XD
In the manga, Rodrigo is quite the doting father, expecially with Cesare, nicknamed "my little emperor".
As the second son, unable to inherit, Cesare was destined to the religious life. Thinking that Rodrigo wanted to make a Cardinal out of him because he was his favourite and he was super-smart is wrong.
After the bros, is Lucrezia, here portrayed with Giulia Farnese:
Giulia is famous for being another mistress of Rodrigo.
Another relative introduced in the manga is a cousin of Cesare, Juan, nicknamed "Silenzio", "Silence", for his kind and quiet nature.
He acts a bit like Cesare's "voice of conscience".
Another semi-obscure character is Francesco Remolines:
If you're sick of shipping Cesare with Young pretty boys, you can use him too XD
But the top of the shipping is him, Michelotto da Corella, the famous killer in service of Cesare!
Michelotto is aware that he's a tool for Cesare too, but at the same time his attachment confuses him!!! On top of it, both of them have the same stubborn personality, so they are incompatible-- Yet so similar!!! I love them.
Where are the doujinshi about Cesare and Michelotto :/ ?
In the manga there are lots of people appearing who are worth a mention, but I would like to focus on just a few of them.
The first and foremost, the "Monsters of the Vatican":
I don't think that we have to wonder why Rodrigo is considered a "monster", even from his own son XD
It's an accurate and interesting depiction, though.
There are lots of interesting political sub-plots in the manga, most of them are interpretations, as in the end most of the truths behind the facts are still unknown (think about the Pazzi Conspiracy, central to the events of the manga), but sure they are constructed skillfully :D !
Raffaele Riario is another interesting character :D
Related to the Della Rovere, he was a supporter of Borgias and, the manga states, a "fan" of the Medicis.
In the manga he's portrayed as a gay with a morbid interest in Cesare--
The other "monster" is Giuliano della Rovere :D
In the manga he's said to descent from a poor family, so he's usually criticized by Rodrigo and his friends (in the picture is Ascanio Sforza) for his poor taste in things, and his actions as a "new rich".
I love the depiction of Giuliano in this manga!
Julius II is usually regarded as one of the worst Popes in history, but he's actually one of my favourites because of his sanguine character :o !!
Another character that I'd like to mention is Niccolò Machiavelli:
He's acting as a spy of the Della Rovere/Riario, and as disguise he used that of a Dominican friar.
Apparently Soryo-sensei likes to associate the friars to some kind of ninjas XD ! It's 1492 and Niccolò is still dressing as a ninj-AEHm a friar.
I hope that at some point of the manga he'll dress normally!
His relationship with Cesare is as ambiguous as it is in actual history.
He's strongly intrigued by the person, but Cesare doesn't seem to trust him...We'll see how it'll develop >o< !
Re: Cesare
Date: 5/5/15 19:15 (UTC)In effetti le similitudini tra Nobu e il Cesare di questo manga sono moltissime, specialmente nei suoi rapporti col prossimo, il suo sforzarsi di servirsi degli altri ed evitare di "affezionarsi" e manifestare troppo platealmente i suoi sentimenti-- Sono diversi livelli di ingenuità, in fondo.
Che Nobu venga associato a una figura "europeggiante" nonostante la genuinità giapponese è un dato di fatto! La faccenda dell'armatura portoghese e del "mantello rosso" ormai sono praticamente classificate come leggenda-- Ma io ho sempre visto in questi "camuffamenti" un tentativo di "caratterizzare" le proprie figure stortiche per renderle "riconoscibili" rispetto agli altri, destinati a fare da "sfondo"... Un esempio eclatante sono i nostri Shingen e Kenshin: investigando sulle loro figure, guardando come vengono ritratti nelle stampe, sia moderne che dell'epoca, a me sembrano praticamente la stessa persona! Entrambe con un carattere molto forte, entrambi ferventi buddisti e monaci, entrambi completamente folli sul campo di battaglia-- Shingen archetipo del "nano" furente e Kenshin bishounen serafico sono pure e semplici "costruzioni" per far risaltare la rivalità dei due personaggi...