Artistic Licence by Vivienne Lafay

Author:Vivienne Lafay [Lafay, Vivienne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780352332103
Publisher: Ebury Publishing
Published: 2010-02-23T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

FATHER GIACOMO SENT word that the ‘little model’ for the Madonna should bring the painting to his house himself when it was done because he wished to ‘congratulate him on his handiwork in person’. Carla heard the news with a sense of foreboding. Piero insisted on Luigi accompanying her as far as his door. With such a valuable painting she needed a bodyguard, and Luigi was the burliest of the apprentices.

‘Once you’re inside, you watch your back,’ he warned, echoing her own unspoken fears, when Carla set out with the panel wrapped in cloth under her arm. ‘Some of those priests have a reputation for liking young boys. If you sense that he wants something more from you than your artistic skill make a quick excuse and run for it, that’s my advice.’

So it was with some trepidation that Carla rang the bell of the priest’s house. He lived alongside his church and a pretty servant boy opened the door doing nothing to allay Carla’s fears. She was shown into Father Giacomo’s study, a pleasant room overlooking cloisters. In a few minutes the priest arrived, already beaming.

‘Ah, the young maestro!’ he began, stretching out his fleshy hands towards the painting. ‘I can hardly wait to see what your master has made of my request to fashion the Virgin’s features after your own. Unveil your handiwork, child, and let the dog see the rabbit for I’m raring to go!’

Carla found his enthusiasm strangely unsettling. She was half afraid he would be disappointed when he saw her efforts, but there was more to it than that. The gleam in his eye was almost lascivious and she guessed that he had some hidden motive for wanting to have his ‘Virgin’ modelled on a boy.

Her fears redoubled as she drew back the cloth and set the painting on a stool for him to see. Father Giacomo gave a guttural groan and pressed his hands together as if in prayer, his brown eyes filled with an unnatural light. ‘Oh, superb!’ he murmured, raptly. ‘What an aid to devotion this work shall prove! I cannot wait to see it in the chapel with a votive light before it. Such innocence! Such subtle charm! Tell me, which parts of the painting did you execute yourself?’

When the priest heard that she had done her own self-portrait his admiration knew no bounds. He flung his chubby arms into the air exclaiming, ‘What immoderate talent in one so young! Tell me, child, has Cortoni taught you everything you know?’

‘He has taught me a great deal, but I have always loved to draw. Painting I could not do until I joined Piero’s workshop, but I enjoy it greatly now.’

The priest’s round, flabby jowls came close to Carla’s face, making her cringe inwardly.

‘And what else has your master taught you, eh boy? Come, you can speak frankly to me. Imagine you are in the confessional. Does he lie with you at night and bid you perform dark deeds for him?’

‘I don’t know what you mean, Father!’ Carla said, but her blushes betrayed her.

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