Who is this woman depicted by Carlo Carrà?
Whose is this austere face, this stern posture?
Her name is Marcela, she’s a creation of the genius of Cervantes, a character in his masterpiece, Don Quixote.
But that’s not all, this beautiful woman went down in history with her first name plus a terrible adjective; she is known by all and forever as “cruel Marcela.”
Where does she get this terrible nickname? What did she do to deserve such an epithet?
As is always the case, the best thing is to see for ourselves and hear directly what Marcela has to tell us.
These are her beautiful words; let’s read them together …
Not only are the poet’s sublime words striking, so is the spirit of Marcela, a beautiful woman but with an irrepressible desire: she wanted to be free.
Needless to say, a beautiful woman can be forgiven for everything but not a desire for freedom, which is why she was and will always remain “cruel Marcela.”