#portraits of a marriage

[fiction-quotes]

To hope is to fear what you desire, the things in which you neither trust nor genuinely believe. You don't place your hopes in what you already have: what is possessed simply exists, as if by default.

  —  Portraits of a Marriage (Sándor Márai), translated by George Szirtes

#book quotes #historical fiction #romance fiction #psychological fiction #sándor márai #george szirtes #portraits of a marriage #psychology #hope #fear #desire #trust #distrust #belief

[maidragoste]

The Portrait

Princess Rhaenyra's naming day was approaching, so King Viserys and Queen Aemma asked her beloved daughter what she wanted as a gift this year. The king expected the princess to ask for something like a new horse or new fabrics so that her maids could make her new dresses, but Rhaenyra surprised him by asking him to hire a painter because she wanted to have a portrait with you, her dearest friend. The king soon granted the princess's wish and a few weeks later you and Rhaenyra found themselves in her chambers dressed in white with a painter.

The painter had to make many drafts because you and Rhaenyra first tried to make serious poses like the both had seen in the portraits of Aegon the Conqueror and his sisters, but the two of you always ended up laughing when your eyes met each other. In the end, you ended up posing sitting looking at the princess while she was standing behind you resting her hand on your shoulder while you caressed her hand. The poor painter had to improvise a little since neither the princess nor you could stop talking but anyway, he ended up painting them both with a smile and Rhaenyra with a blush on her cheeks.

Years later, when the celebration of your wedding with Harwin ends, the first thing Rhaenyra does, when she returns to her chambers, is look for that portrait and while her eyes fill with tears she can't help but think that she liked that white dress you wore better with her than the one you wore at your wedding. If she were just a man, then nothing would stop her from taking you as her wife and reigning over the Seven Kingdoms together. She would give you everything, her heart, her soul, her power and she would make you the happiest woman in the kingdom. But she can never have you because she is a woman and you chose Harwin.

#the sea dragon the clubfoot and the green queen #Rhaenyra made the two of them dress in white to pretend it was a marriage portrait. #hotd x reader #hotd x you #rhaenyra targaryen x reader #rhaenyra targaryen #rhaenyra x you #rhaenyra x reader #rhaenyra x y/n #rhaenyra targaryen x you #hotd angst #velaryon reader #harwin strong #sea dragon #house of dragon x reader #house of the dragon x you

[diioonysus]

art + hair pieces

#orientatalin by edouard frederic wilhelm richter #cant find this one #this one either its tougher than you think to reverse search them #portrait of josephine de beauharnais by francois gerard #the marquise de seignelay and two of her sons by pierre mignard #infantin isabella clara eugenia at age 13 by alonso sanchez coello #grand duchess alexandra pavlovna romanova of russia but i cant find the artist #marie frederike amalie queen of greece by joseph karl stieler #empress josephine by jean louis viger #queen anna of hungary and bohemia by hans maler #elisabeth of austria by jooris van der straaten #anne wortley by paul van somer #manuela gonzalez velazquez tocando el piano by zacarias gonzalez velazquez #adelingen by heinrich friederich fuger #the unequal marriage by vasili pukirev #idealised portrait of a young women as flora by bartolomeo veneto #a portrait of a noble lady by jan adam kruseman #changing the letter by joseph edward southall #lorelei by james c christensen #the crucifixion by jacob cornelisz van oostsanen #saint dorothy i think this is the title its kinda confusing by i cant find the artist #saint barbara by ambrosius benson #virgin mary by hubert van eyck and jan van eyck #princess maria alexandrovna by ivan makarov #ladies in the blazon room of the winter palace by adolphe ladurner #queen marie therese and her son by charles beaubrun #boyar's wife by konstantin yegorovich #dont know the title but its by barthel bruyn the elder #queen isabella ii of spain by unknown artist #portrait of maria therese charlotte of france by antoine-jean gros

[burningvelvet]

Miniature wedding portraits of Frances and John Croker of Barton by Nicolas Hilliard, circa 1581.

#freckles #early modern #early modern era #early modern period #english renaissance #english #renaissance #cool #portraits #portrait #painting #paintings #wedding #romance #love #couple #marriage #romantic #pretty #handsome #aesthetic #academia #history #fashion history #fashion #style #interesting #nicolas hilliard #elizabethan #tudor

[derangedrhythms]

To look into her eyes was to behold the visage of an incandescent, forbidden deity.

Maggie O'Farrell, from 'The Marriage Portrait'

#maggie o'farrell #the marriage portrait #prose #eyes #the holiness and horror of divine things #p

[howgalling]

my sun haven farmer!! she hasn't got a name, they call her The Farmer.

she's been haunting the local landscape like a sad oily wraith for decades and is dipping her toes into socialising by leaving gifts she figured out the villagers would like (via stalking). she is trying her best! they know she is not a threat (to them)

#sun haven #sun haven farmer #she has a watcher angels halo blessing on her for reasons <3 #when i play this game i get mods to hoard the marriage candidates like snacoon plushies lolol #if you play sun haven i recommend a portrait mod unless you like the OG style of the romances portraits. personally not to my taste but the #models are soooo cute #had an absolutely catastrophically depressing week so sunhaven has been my only bright spot haha

[oldshrewsburyian]

Okay, now that I've read both Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait, I can say definitively that in each of these beautifully written, richly textured books, Maggie O'Farrell has chosen a central myth about the lives of premodern women and structured much of the novel and characterization around it. Some women are interesting and intelligent and have mystical witchy powers™ (Hamnet); other women, no matter how interesting and intelligent, are only expected to reproduce and are given no consideration at all, poor little rich girls (The Marriage Portrait.)

This isn't the first time, and it probably won't be the last, that I've commented on something similar in historical fiction (*cough* Matrix,) but I just do not understand choosing to immerse yourself in a period in order to reconstruct it, in order to create a richly imagined interior world for a woman in a vivid context... and then saying "but I wish to ignore literal decades of research because surely the Vibes for premodern women must have been Bad."

Also I'm mad about the sexist and ahistorical framing of needlework as useless but painting as evidence of artistic imagination™, but that's a side issue.

#historical fiction #maggie o'farrell #her prose is so good #the marriage portrait #hamnet #also lucrezia in the marriage portrait is supposed to be so clever but she is in fact deeply stupid and naive; this annoyed me

[brother-emperors]

POMPEY & SULLA

Pompey, however, was not cowed, but bade Sulla reflect that more worshipped the rising than the setting sun, intimating that his own power was on the increase, while that of Sulla was on the wane and fading away

Plutarch, Pompey

political alliances are like bets, you know. sometimes you come out winning, sometimes the guy you were grooming to be your heir has ambitions beyond you and you can’t fully get rid of him. sometimes an alliance is like sharing a pomegranate, like a bad deal. hand in hand, & you’re stuck with them till the end of the line.

⭐ places I’m at! bsky / pixiv / pillowfort /cohost / cara.app / tip jar!

#ye haw! what a fun dynamic #there was a version of this where they were both biting into a split pomegranate but I didn’t feel. like rendering all that #I do want to do a portrait of Pompey and Crassus after Juan Luna’s Tampuhan tho. that one will require work #drawing tag #gnaeus pompeius magnus #lucius cornelius sulla felix #roman republic tag #cant believe Sulla fucking marriage trapped him. so allow me to take it a step further (inhale) (I am forcibly removed from #the podium)

[sunlight-my-beloved]

January 19th, Teresa

Can't say I'd make the same choices but I have to admire her dedication.

#1670 #1670 fanart #1670 Netflix #teresa #a portrait a day #what i mean is that i would not attempt to kill a boar bear handed to marry some asshole noble guy even if marriage comes with a palace #but for a palace alone?? not even a palace just a pretty old house that i can renovate in spare time?? i would take that chance #the balladyna reference is pretty obvious but i love that there are three sisters #like three witches

[fiction-quotes]

All I know of politics is that no one trusts anyone, and everyone thinks he knows better than the next man.

  —  Portraits of a Marriage (Sándor Márai), translated by George Szirtes

#book quotes #historical fiction #romance fiction #psychological fiction #sándor márai #george szirtes #portraits of a marriage #politics #arrogance #distrust

[ghostresidues]

on a literary historical fiction kick at the moment if anyone has any recs pls lmk 🙏

#stuff along the lines of wolf hall #the marriage portrait #a net for small fishes #etc etc #preferably about a year prior to 1750 #i’m an early modern/medieval girlie

[edwardslovelyelizabeth]

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell

"Sadness keeps attempting to tie weights to her wrists and ankles, therefore she has to keep moving, she has to outpace it."

#the marriage portrait #maggie o'farrell #lucrezia de medici #litedit #literature #bookedit #books #librarysource #booknet #storyseekers #novelsnet #booksociety #fictionnet #fictiondaily #chaptersnet #litsociety #bookrl #my edit

[certifiedrude]

hayley miss williams, if ya nastyyyy

#hayley williams #hand in marriage? #paramore #hayley from paramore #art #artists on tumblr #digital drawing #procreate #portrait

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Jean-François Portaels (Belgian, 1818-1895) A Sicilian Bride, 1861 Royal Collection Trust

#A Sicilian Bride #art #1800s #western civilization #jean francois portaels #Jean-François Portaels #beautiful #women in art #female portrait #female #portrait #italy #sicilian #belgian #belgium #woman #brunette #christian #christianity #marriage #christentum #Christendom #fine art #beautiful art

[derangedrhythms]

[She] stares at him and something seems to solidify in the air, in the beams of their eyes, flowing from her to him and back again, creating an almost tangible channel between them. [She] wouldn’t be surprised if others in the room were able to see it: it would be coloured red, or blue, or fluctuating between the two, towards purple, and it would crackle audibly. It would be impossible to cross the room at this moment without getting caught by it: the channel or connection between them would repel others from it. It occupies a space of its own.

Maggie O'Farrell, from 'The Marriage Portrait'

#maggie o'farrell #the marriage portrait #prose #one of those mysterious electric things between people #o

[sardinesinthegarden]

My fave reads of 2023 in a collage zine :•)

#super happy with this tbh #zines #web weaving #book recommendations #books #2023 books #death and the penguin #klara and the sun #the marriage portrait #we have always lived in the castle #the dutch house #people from my neighborhood #collage #collage zine #zinester #book zine #My zines