Ginés Donaire I Jaén, (EFE) publish his fifth historical novel, “Venus in the Mirror” (Edhasa), a story of palace intrigues in 17th-century Rome that recreates the relationship between Pope Innocent X and his sister-in-law, the figure of the painter Diego Velázquez, garnished with characters from his sentimental and family past.
The starting point of the novel occurred three years ago when the firm Sotheby’s in London auctioned off a painting by Velázquez, lost for 300 years, and which was the portrait he made of Olimpia Maidalchini, known as ‘La papisa’ since which was attributed to a sentimental relationship with the pope.
“When I learned about Olimpia’s biography, I was fascinated; There I realized that there was a fascinating story and I wanted to tell it myself”, explains Emilio Lara (Jaén, 1968) who in 2017 with his second novel, “El relojero de la puerta del sol”, received the Andalusia Critics Award.
That starting point was mixed by Lara with family memories, “other people’s memories that we stole like white-collar thieves, and also with a lot of imagination,” he points out.
Right hand of Pius XII
For this, he relied on the experiences of an uncle of his, also called Emilio, who studied theology and sang mass in the catacombs of San Calixto in Rome. His uncle established a good relationship with the German nun Sister Pascualina Lehnert. She was feared and hated by the curia for being the right hand of Pope Pius XII.
“I made use of those family memories to recreate the character of Olimpia Maidalchini and her black legend”, points out the writer from Jaén, who summarizes in this way the influence that this woman came to exert in the Vatican in the 17th century: “Some skirts commanded more than a cassock”.
“I am not a seeker of stories, but the stories catch me, they come to me”, adds Lara. In her opinion, the assistance and defense work for women carried out by Olimpia Maidalchini “is something that had not been seen in history until then.”
Lara refers to the shelters that ‘La papisa’ promoted to house former prostitutes, widows and poor orphaned girls so that they would not have to prostitute themselves to survive. “She signed a contract with the prostitutes of Rome, charged them a fee and in exchange Olimpia gave them legal immunity so that they would not be assaulted or mistreated,” says the writer from Jaén.
Velázquez’s love in Rome
In the novel, a nod is made to a well-known brothel that existed in the Plaza de Santiago de Jaén, Casa Fidela, and also to the prestigious Jaen painter Miguel Viribay.
Diego Velázquez is another of the characters that comes to light in Lara’s novel. In this case, he recreates the painter’s love story with a 20-year-old model who was the one with whom he painted “La Venus del espejo”.
“Philip IV repeatedly forced Velázquez by letter to return to Spain, but he did not want to because his love was in Rome,” Lara explains.
While promoting his latest novel, Emilio Lara is already immersed in a historical essay written from the point of view of the humanities. “I approach it in my own way, mixing autofiction, history, my taste for literature, cinema, music, travel,” Lara explains about this essay that he is preparing for next year. EFE