andrea_erpiccolo_calavera

Beatrice Cenci is a very important character in the popular history of the city of Rome, representing innocence betrayed and raped. The daughter of Count Francesco Cenci, a violent and dissolute man, suffered continuous violence and harassment on the part of his father, and was also suspected of a sexual nature. In 1595 his father, in order to prevent her from marrying and consequently paying the dowry, segregated her with his stepmother at the Rocca di Petrella, where the two women continued to be protagonists of the constant violence and harassment of their father and husband. In 1598 Beatrice, together with her stepmother and her brothers, organized the murder of their father, then tried to conceal the fact as an accident. They are discovered, tortured, tried and finally sentenced to death. The request for clemency to Pope Clement VIII was useless. On the morning of 11 September 1599, in Castel Sant Angelo, in front of a huge and moved crowd, Beatrice Cenci and her stepmother are beheaded, the big brother quartered, the younger brother is made to watch the death of relatives tied to a chair. Among the spectators of the performance there was Caravaggio, who was struck by the scene, he took inspiration for his Judith who cut his head to Holofernes. This portrait, instead, seems to have been executed by Guido Reni a few days before the execution.