Reliquary of Lucretia Borgia's Hair Lock at the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan

Alfredo Ravasco “Lucretia Borgia Hair Lock”

Reliquary in malachite, silver, pearls, precious stones and rock crystal — 30cm high — (1926-1928)

In the main hall of the Galbiati wing of the Ambrosiana, a reliquary decorated with precious stones houses a long lock of blond hair from the famous Lucretia Borgia.

Reliquary of Lucretia Borgia's Hair Lock at the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan

Lucretia Borgia's Hair Daughter of Pope Alexander VI, Rodrigo Borgia, Lucretia (18 April 1480 — 24 June 1519) was celebrated for her great beauty.

This lock of hair was preserved for almost four centuries, along with the love letters that Lucretia had addressed to her lover and poet, Pietro Bembo.

Lucretia was barely 22 when she went to Ferrara to marry Alfonso d'Este following the death of her second husband, murdered by her brother.

There, she met the young Venetian poet and writer Pietro Bembo.

They fell in love and wrote numerous love letters for almost fourteen years, from 1503 to 1517, until Pietro Bembo left for Urbino.

Beautiful letters written in encrypted language to avoid being discovered, where they referred to the heart as “crystal”.

And as is done between lovers, she puts a lock of her hair in one of her love letters to Pietro, the same one exposed to Ambrosiana.

Understandably, Lucretia Borgia fell in love with a man like Pietro Bembo, a humanist and fine scholar, a friend of Raphael, who later became secretary of Pope Leo X and finally cardinal.

It is not known how the lock of the pretty Lucretia arrived in Milan, but it is known that this hair was found in correspondence sent to her lover.

Lucretia Borgia's Hair They have been preserved since 1685 at the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, along with nine love letters she wrote to Bembo.

Between 1926 and 1928, the sculptor and jeweller Alfredo Ravasco created the reliquary containing the pretty blond lock.

A reliquary mounted on a malachite support and framed by four small, winged heads in gilded silver topped with pearls.

A chain of tiny pearls hangs under the rock crystal bowl that contains Lucretia's hair, a chain to which two small medallions and coats of arms depicting the Borgia bull are hung.

Agates, rubies and emeralds complete the decoration of the reliquary.

The English poet Lord Byron even managed to have some of this hair donated during his visit to Milan.

He then gave these few hairs of the beautiful Lucretia to his sister Augusta Leigh by joining them to one of her letters where he describes them as follows: “The blondest hair you can imagine, I have never seen so blond.”

But Byron was not the only one to fantasize about Rodrigo Borgia's daughter's hair; Gustave Flaubert followed him and Prince Georges of Prussia, who had not hesitated to send two officials to Milan to examine the lock for a detailed account.

At the height of Romanticism, this fetishistic passion went far beyond that of Byron and Flaubert, and the Ambrosiana Art Gallery became a real place of pilgrimage.

A cult that then waned in intensity in the century that followed until Gabriele d'Annunzio, during his visit to Milan, rekindled the Lucrecian flame!

Artists Leonardo da Vinci | Botticelli | Raphael | Caravaggio | Titian | Luini | Bassano | Bramantino | Lucretia Borgia | Piazza | Pinturicchio | Tiepolo | Veronese B. | Vivarini
Ambrosiana Artists | Location | Opening Hours Tickets | Authorizations
Museums Ambrosiana | Castello Sforzesco | Poldi Pezzoli

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