Cover Art

Here is the front cover art for Valentino: a play in verse.

This is generally believed to be a portrait of Cesare Borgia (Duke Valentino), painted in the early 1500s.

The work has been attributed to various Italian Renaissance artists, including Altobello Melone, Gianfrancesco Bembo, and Giorgione (Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco).

Alexander Dumas (père), in his book Celebrated Crimes, claims that the popular Renaissance image of Jesus Christ was modeled after Cesare Borgia, who was widely considered to be the most handsome man of his day.

One can certainly see a resemblance to Jesus iconography in this portrait.

Leonardo da Vinci worked for Cesare Borgia as a military engineer, and other Italian Renaissance painters would have met Cesare or studied his portraits.

The irony, of course, is that Cesare Borgia was not exactly the most Christ-like figure. Yes, he was the son of a pope and for a short time served as a cardinal, but he was also notoriously ruthless, and became the role-model for Machiavelli's classic book on power politics, The Prince.

In any case, I think the book's front cover turned out well.