High quality but for those who love history!
The collection “Les reines de sang” from Delcourt is both a healthy and essential collection – at least for once it is women in history – and a risky collection – it is only about queens who have some big flaws, sometimes even alleged criminals – and therefore this collection should be read with some caution and do not hesitate to look for historical sources to confirm or mitigate some character aspects of these great queens … In general, I love this atypical series that began with the masterful story of Eleonora d’Aquitania reviewed and corrected by Simona Mogavino, Delalande and Gomez!
This time, direction the Renaissance, Italy and a certain Caterina Sforza … Who says Sforza says Milan and that’s where it all began for her who is the natural daughter of Galeas Marie Sforza, Duke of Milan, and his mistress , Countess Lucrezia Landriani. But, during the Renaissance, it was very rare to die in one’s bed of old age and the duke was murdered in 1476 when the young Catherine was only 13 years old … And that’s where her life really began because, with her marriage, she became the lover of the fortresses of Imola and Forlì, between two lands that are often not at peace, Milan and Florence …
The propensity of Jean-Pierre Pécau, screenwriter of these two excellent albums, is to show that in the fifteenth century Venice, Florence, Genoa, Milan and Rome were the five poles of strength of the Italian peninsula and that very often this is just a kind of big lying poker … Caterina was coached by her uncle Ludovico Sforza who taught her the rules of this five-a-side game so that she could, anytime, anywhere, play in the name of Milan and her family, Effort …
Jean-Pierre Pécau decides to exaggerate a bit and to tell it to Catherine following the black legend, the one that makes her not a weak bastard and tossed about by events, but a Lombardy lioness ready to fight to defend her place, the her legacy, her land, her family… Finally, we believe in this strong Catherine who will lose only one battle, the one against the disease that conquered her when she was only 46 years old!
I will not tell you everything about her life, a life that is found in many Renaissance fictions seen from Rome, Florence, Venice, Naples … We will follow her step by step and it is an opportunity to remember that in this five-a-side game France has tried to get a certain Charles VIII, son of Louis XI out of the game … But you will discover all this with joy by reading these two albums because you have to read them!
The design by Gabriele Parma, an Italian designer, is beautifully dressed and totally adapted to this story. This is his second participation in this collection, because, in the company of Jean-Pierre Pécau himself, he had drawn Costanza d’Antioche, also in two volumes. The landscapes, the fights, the historical monuments reinforce the historical credibility. The dynamics of the drawing are very real and Catherine’s character is superbly embodied. Dimitri Fogolin’s colors reinforce the quality of the comic and make it very pleasant to read.
So I really enjoyed this historical reenactment of a woman to be discovered. For those wishing to go further than her, there are only a few books entirely dedicated to her, but we can mention “Caterina Sforza, the lady of Forlì”. On the other hand, in many works on the Italian Renaissance, we find the trace of her … Let’s not forget that in her descent we find a queen of France, Marie de Médicis …
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