Vintage Pulp | May 2 2018 |
A queen wearies of hoop skirts and powered wigs, but the royal fencing épée should come in handy.
Benedetto Caroselli once again shows his skill as an illustrator with this cover of a fencing foil wielding femme fatale for Mario de Adda's La regina di spade (Cristina di Svezia), aka, The Queen of Swords (Christina of Sweden), 1965, for Italian publishers Edizioni Periodici Italiani. The book is part of the series Ritratti storici: Le grandi peccatrici, or Historical Portraits: The Great Sinners. Was Queen Christina of Sweden a great sinner? Well, she didn't obey the rules as expected of women in the 17th century—even those of royal blood. Abdication was the result, followed by numerous other intrigues and difficulties. But telling her story is beyond our scope. We're just into Caroselli's art, which is brilliant, as always.