Portrait of Lozana: The Lusty Andalusian Woman facts for kids
Retrato de la Loçana andaluza..., Venice, 1528.
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| Author | Francisco Delicado |
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| Original title | Retrato de la Loçana andaluza |
| Translator | Bruno M. Damiani |
| Country | Spain |
| Language | Spanish |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | Scripta Humanistica |
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Publication date
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1528 (English trans. August 1987) |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 301 pp (Eng. Trans. hardback edition) |
| ISBN | 0-916379-41-8 (Eng. Trans. hardback edition) |
| OCLC | 15695720 |
| 863/.3 19 | |
| LC Class | PQ6388.D2 E5 1987 |
The Portrait of Andalucian Lozana (original title in Spanish: Retrato de la Loçana andaluza, translated into English by Bruno Damiani in 1987, was published in Venice by the Spanish Renaissance writer, Francisco Delicado, in 1528, after he escaped from Rome due to the anti-Spanish sentiment that uprose after the sack of Rome a year earlier. Published anonymously, the book contains a description of the life in Rome's underworld during the first third of the 16th century, focussing particularly on the world of immigrant women from Spain and Spanish Southern Italy. It includes one of the first accounts of women making beauty products, and working as beauty technicians. It is considered a book descendant of Celestina (written some thirty years before by Fernando de Rojas) because of the literary genre, the novel in dialogue, and one of the earliest manifestations of the picaresque novel. There is only one extant copy of the book, now in the National Library of Austria, Vienna.
Plot summary
The book begins in Cordoba where Aldonza lives with her mother. After her mother's death, she moves to her aunt's house from where she escapes with Diomedes, a sea merchant. After travelling to many cities of the Mediterranean Sea and the Middle East and changing her name to Lozana, they come to Marseille to meet the father of Diomedes, who, disgusted with his son, sends him to prison and pays a sailor to make Lozana disappear. However, the sailor disobeys the order given and takes Lozana to Livorno, where she continues her journey up to Rome. Without money, Lozana goes to the Spanish downtown in Rome to request help; there, the women see her abilities in cooking, and creating beauty products. After a Neapolitan woman gives her a servant called Rampin, Lozana makes an agreement with him so that he becomes, for a time, her servant. After few years, Lozana and Rampin move to Lipari; the book ends with a little narration about the sack of Rome.
Literary significance and criticism
One of the most important characteristics in the book is the didactic-satiric line (as well as other books of the picaresque novel, as Lazarillo de Tormes conceived as a strong critic done by the humanists), because it unveils the moral decadence of Rome, and all the characters displayed — from the bishops to the villains. This makes the book an eloquent, realistic testimony of the manners and life in the Roman underworld from the years 1513 to 1524 and the ulterior attack by the imperial forces of Charles V in 1527 that led to the finalisation of the first period of the Renaissance. While the narration never gets to 1527, there are some clues that prophesy this end, which can be compared to the punishment of Babel for the Romans' sins: Pues «año de veinte e siete, deja a Roma y vete», says the author (Arrived the year of twenty-seven, leave Rome and go away), as a clear manifestation of the divine punishment for the bad actions (along with the dogma of remuneration in the Christian faith).
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
There was a Spanish-Italian film version from 1975.
