Renaissance Villain Given a Makeover

Five hundred years after Lucretia Borgia's passion for incest, murder and corruption spiced the chronicles of villainy, Italy is attempting to rebrand her as an exemplary mother and wife with a warm heart.

Academics, artists and politicians are gathering in Rome today to launch a year-long celebration of the Renaissance aristocrat, honouring her with concerts, exhibitions, plays, festivals and a comic strip.

Instead of harping on about the alleged sex with her brother, or the enemies poisoned with powder from a ring on her finger, or the Vatican plotting on behalf of her father, Pope Alexander VI, people should see Lucretia's other side, organisers say.

They claim she was a pious lover of the arts partly responsible for the cultural blossoming which banished the dark ages.

She was immortalised posing beside the goddess Venus in a painting by Titian, but her name is synonymous with deadliness.

By coincidence, a film about her is to go into production next year.

Lucretia, also known as Lucrezia, was born in 1480, the daughter of a cardinal and one of his mistresses. When her father became Pope he married her to a Milanese tycoon and established a dynasty famed for opulence and ruthlessness.

Lucretia worked her way through several lovers and a second husband - assassinated possibly by her brother, possibly by her - before marrying the Duke of Ferrara. At that point she became a model wife, give or take an alleged affair, according to the celebration organisers. She died at the age of 39.

A bareback horseride contest will be among the events intended to lure tourists to Ferrara for the celebrations.