of Incest and Female Relations in Harriet Hosmer's Beatrice Cenci

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dramatic potential of the story about the noble and rich
Count Cenci, who had been convicted by the pope three
times because of misdeeds that involved sodomy, according
to Shelley's documentary source, or the plotted murder of his
two sons, according to Shelley's retelling of the story. This
cruel father, the poet explains, celebrated the death of his
two sons with a banquet and imprisoned, abused, and raped
his daughter, who was subsequently tried and beheaded by
the Church. 24 Only the youngest son, Bernardo, survived.
Thus was extinguished the power of one of the noblest and
richest families in Rome.
Jameson narrated a similar account in Lives of Celebrated
Female Sovereigns. Hosmer consulted Jameson from 1857 to
1859 while working on her Zenobia, but the two women
probably met earlier, in 1855, while the sculptor was formu-
lating the details for Beatrice Cenci. 20 Jameson's dramatic ac-
count similarly constructs Cenci's father as a "human mon-
ster" who "was a stranger to every redeeming virtue of the
human heart." She elaborates that Count Cenci spent his life
in "debauchery" and mistreated his children, imprisoning
Beatrice "in a remote and unfrequented room of his palace."
Eventually subdued by her "matchless beauty," the count
treated her with greater kindness in preparation for his se-
duction. Jameson agrees that Beatrice, Lucretia, Giacomo,
and one of Beatrice's suitors (Monsignore Guerra) collabo-
rated in killing Francesco. After their arrest, all confessed
except Beatrice, who withstood the rack, and Guerra, who
fled the country. Beatrice finally acquiesced, admitting par-
ticipation in her father's murder in order to erase the "foul
stain" he had cast on their "ancient and honorable house."
Pope Clement VIII condemned the family to public behead-
ing.
Shelley's and Jameson's stories thus roughly concur, pro-
viding Hosmer with the basis for her conception. The sculp-
tor selected one scene from Jameson's dramatic narrative:
Beatrice's steadfast faith while in prison. Jameson recounts
that at the "fatal hour" of Beatrice's execution, she was in
prison "at [her] prayers . . . firm and resolute." Holding a
crucifix in one hand with her arms "lightly bound with
cords," Beatrice walked to the scaffold with "an expression of
resignation and fortitude, a calmness of religious hope," in
preparation for her execution. 26 Hosmer collapsed two of
Jameson's scenes into one—Beatrice in prison, Beatrice hold-
ing a crucifix as she walks to the scaffold—showing instead
the condemned woman reclining lethargically on a bench in
her cell and grasping a rosary in her sleep.
Jameson's text never mentions the word "incest" or speci-
fies the horrible "crimes" that led to Beatrice's death. She
instead employs such phrases as "unhallowed crime," "human
depravity," "frightful catastrophe," "violent scene," and a "cir-
cumstance between Beatrice and her father" that was "mon-
strous." Jameson furthermore describes Beatrice's terror as
she "shrank back in horror and affright, her features con-