Character Showcase- Viola and Cesca Crollalanza

Viola and Francesca Crollalanza may be twins, but they have two very distinct personalities. Born only three minutes apart they share a bond that cannot be broken no matter how, at times, it might chafe.


As the very slightly elder of the two, Viola takes her senior post very seriously and claims she has always been the one with all the burdens and responsibilities -- also the only one with any good sense. On the other hand, Francesca (known to her sisters as Cesca), is the dreamer who feeds stray animals, saves rats from drowning in the canal, and talks to angels–- or so she claims.

Viola has hopes of one day becoming a great limner. She practices every day by sketching and painting her twin, for portraits she sells at the market under titles such as "Beauty Adorns Virtue". She is always thinking and planning ahead, always in control and never seen shedding a tear. Their mother says she is like a scorpion, lurking in the slipper of her enemies, preparing her sting. Nobody ever really knows what Viola is thinking and plotting.

Meanwhile, Cesca worries and prays for everybody, wearing her heart on her sleeve. A sleeve which, incidentally, is often filled with items pilfered from the market. Many a pretty, shiny thing has been slipped away into Cesca’s voluminous sleeves while its owner is unaware. Having such a sweet and innocent face, Cesca gets away with it – unlike their younger sister, Truzia, whose face is fit only for the gallows. (Although I shall leave her antics for tomorrow’s showcase).


Viola possesses a sharp, sarcastic tongue, but this is not the only weapon at her disposal. She also has a talent for producing rashes, boils and other unsightly injury to those who disagree with, or insult her. Of course, she can cure them too, but only once they have begged to her satisfaction. She is a proud woman, often described as haughty and imperious. Impatient with those who dawdle indecisively, irritated by those who question her, frustrated by those who lack self-discipline, Viola finds most people exceedingly trying on her nerves.

Cesca is the sister upon whom all hopes of a good marriage are pinned. She likes to be needed and a husband, in her eyes, is much like a tantrum-prone, colicky baby, so she has resigned herself to the thought of being a wife. The sisters Crollalanza have only enough dowry for one of them to be married, so it might as well be Cesca, the only daughter not likely to push her husband into the canal.

The other two girls will have to fend for themselves, unless Cesca manages to marry well enough to provide for them too. Occasionally Cesca becomes frustrated by her twin, who treats her as if she is much younger – not merely by those three precious minutes. When gentle Cesca’s fury grows it tends to manifest itself in a flurry of flowerpots, lutes and sauce ladles flying across the room. And she does not even have to touch them with her hands to make it happen. She blames it entirely on her angels.


The twins have been known to feud for days over differences of opinion, such as which team to support in a neighborhood game of “calcio” and then it is best to steer clear of the fracas.  

But when all is said and done, these women will always have each other and nobody will ever know them so well as they know each other. In times to come, their sisterhood will be the most valuable thing they possess.



Read more about THE CROLLALANZAS  out now!

(Images here: Head of a Woman by Andrea del Sarto 1486-1530), and Head of a Smiling Young Woman in Three-Quarter View, by Agnolo Bronzino c. 1542)