Maggie O'Farrell's The Marriage Portrait (2022) is a novel about Lucrezia di Cosimo de'Medici, a young woman who lives in Florence, Italy, in 1550. One day, at 15, Lucrezia's parents inform her that she will marry Alfonso II d'Este, a much older man and the Duke of Ferrara. With their marriages, Lucrezia's parents hope that the Ferrara and de'Medici dynasties will merge. But their marriage is not happy, leading Lucrezia to try and find a way out of her husband's oppressive grip. Ultimately, she escapes her marriage and lives in Venice with Jacopo, where she lives as an artist.
O'Farrell's bibliography primarily consists of historical fiction novels written about real-life people. As with her previous stories, The Marriage Portrait was incredibly well-reviewed by critics and audiences, who made the book a bestseller. For example, Kirkus Reviews called The Marriage Portrait "A compelling portrait of a young woman out of step with her times." The Washington Post also loved O'Farrell's novel, writing in their review that "O'Farrell pulls out little threads of historical detail to weave this story of a precocious girl sensitive to the contradictions of her station...You may know the history and think you know what's coming, but don't be so sure."
