Hello! I was hoping you could help me understand the significance of Hannibal drawing Will and Bedelia as the two characters from La Primavera- at least thats how I understood it. I'm not familiar with the greek mythology but I've heard this one has to do with a nymph being violated. Is Hannibal simply revisiting his past murders after Pazzi, or is he musing on his upcoming violating of Will and Bedilia? I'm asking you because I think you write the best Hannibal and understand him best. Thanks!
This was one of the moments in Dolce that I really loved. Hannibal’s sketch is his hilarious attempt at Hannibal fanart, yes, but it’s also a deeply personal moment for him. This strange juxtaposition of Will and Bedelia as figures in a mythological dreamscape operates as a direct through-line into Hannibal’s subconscious, a tantalizing glimpse of not only Hannibal’s feelings about both Bedelia and Will, but also his relationship with Botticelli’s Primavera, a painting that had such a profound effect on him as a young man that he created a murder tableau in its image.
It’s oddly sweet that young Hannibal chose to imitate great art rather than attempting to create something entirely his own. This kind of experimentation is typical of unformed artists, who first need to copy the masters before they can become masters themselves. Hannibal will eventually progress to the point where his murder tableaux reflect who he is – most notably the Tree Man and the Heart, both completely original compositions – but for now he is content to reproduce Botticelli over and over in pencil, as well as in his favorite material: dead human flesh.
He chooses to reproduce the scariest segment of the painting: the nymph Chloris’s abduction by the wind god Zephyrus. Ovid writes about this story in his long-form poem The Fasti. Zephyrus steals Chloris away from her woodland home and rapes her, but then “makes amends for his violence” by marrying her and installing her in a beautiful garden. Zephyrus bids his new bride: “Goddess, be mistress of the flowers.” And from then on, Chloris receives a new name, Flora, to mark her transformation into the goddess of flowers. Botticelli (and Hannibal, in his copy) dramatize the exact moment when Chloris is abducted – and we can see her Becoming has already started as flowers stream from her mouth, a disturbing and oddly violent detail.
The whole notion of a Becoming and a rebirth, of course, is one very important to Hannibal. But note that it’s a very specific brand of Becoming, a transformation with a violent, violating catalyst. Zephyrus forces Chloris to become Flora. Although in Ovid she is pleased with her married life, it isn’t a life she chose for herself. Juxtapose this story with Hannibal’s modus operandi: he creates companions for himself by putting them into situations where they commit murder. It’s the first step in Will’s transformation, the first step in Bedelia’s, the first step in Abigail’s. This experience binds them to Hannibal, and inculcates them with a taste for violence that they will continue to pursue. They become perpetrators just like Hannibal, but they are still victims in that this Becoming was not something they originally chose for themselves, but something Hannibal thrust upon them.
Hannibal replicates Primavera in pencil, but instead of copying the painting in every detail – as he would have done when he was a young man still learning his craft – Hannibal replaces Chloris and Zephyrus with Bedelia and Will. Bedelia becomes the innocent wood nymph who is spirited away, and Will becomes the overmastering wind god, forcing a violent transformation upon her. In other words, Hannibal draws Bedelia as a victim and Will as a perpetrator!
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