How to Be Both

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, racism, gender discrimination, and sexual content. 

Francescho realizes that George is in fact a girl when she apologizes to the owner of the house opposite Lisa Goliard’s for sitting on her wall. She nonetheless returns to her perch time and again, moving to sit on the floor leaning against the wall when the old lady protests. She continues to take photographs of Lisa Goliard’s house, and Lisa Goliard herself comes out to confront George once. Eventually, the hostility of the woman in the house opposite wanes. She brings George an umbrella during a rainstorm and even once sits with George to keep her company. George sticks the photographs to her bedroom wall, and Francescho admires them as well as the other photos and posters George has pinned up. Although George cannot hear him, Francescho often addresses her with words of reassurance and comfort.

Francescho continues to remember scenes from his past. In his youth, his friend Barto took him to watch a parade in a local city to honor the ascension of the Duke Borso d’Este. The celebration is ecstatic, and at its height the Duke stars in a performance alongside a group of children dressed as virtues and angels. The self-aggrandizing play sees the Duke refusing the throne of justice in a contrived show of modesty, and although Francescho and the crowd are enthused by the spectacle, Barto is disdainful and critical. Francescho notices that the Duke’s cruel grip has left a dark bruise on the shoulder of a boy who forgot his line while addressing the crowd. Later that evening, Barto accompanies Francescho to a brothel, where he has paid for the establishment’s most popular sex worker, Ginevra, to divest Francescho of his virginity. Francescho, wary of exposing the secret of his gender, refuses to sleep with Ginevra. Instead, he sketches her and allows her to nap. She is utterly charmed by the picture, and Francescho gives it to her on the condition that she not tell Barto anything save that they had a nice time together. The next time Francescho and Barto visit the brothel, Ginevra introduces Francescho to another girl who is willing to pay him to sketch her. This continues with a different girl each visit, until Isotta hires him to draw her. Afterward, she gropes him to confirm her suspicion that he was born female, and proceeds to teach him how two women can pleasure each other. Thereafter Francescho exchanges his sketches for lessons in how to make love, and is very popular among the working women. The mistress of the establishment tries to ban him from the establishment because of the number of girls whose opinions of themselves were so heightened by his sketches of them that they chose to leave the profession. She first commissions Francescho to sketch her, and is so moved by the result that she cancels his banishment and gives him a key to the house instead.

Many of the girls Francescho knows in the brothel eventually meet untimely and brutal ends, or simply disappear like Isotta. One of the girls lets slip to Barto that Francescho has female genitalia. Barto confronts Francescho and essentially confesses that his love for his friend was only endurable because it was impossible between two men. Francescho says that nothing needs to change between them, breaking Barto’s heart. They part ways, certain that their friendship is forever broken, but despite the anguish and drama of the falling out, they soon return to their former closeness. One day, Francescho meets a Black fieldhand on the side of the road. The man requests a piece of rope to tie his clothes together, and Francescho gives it to him. The stranger is very strong and handsome, and since they are both attracted to each other, Francescho and the worker sleep together in a clearing in the woods.

Under the Falcon’s supervision, Francescho begins working on a commission for Duke Borso: a fresco in the Piazza Schifanoia, depicting the 12 months of the year. Cosmo was the one to draft the plans for the room, although he is not present at the briefing or any of the subsequent workdays. Francescho, unlike the other workers, is given a whole wall and three scenes of his own to paint. He enlists the assistance of one of the provided apprentices, a boy named Ercole whom he nicknames “the pickpocket” based on his looks and demeanor. In the weeks they spend together, Francescho teaches Ercole many lessons about preparing materials and techniques for painting. He allows Ercole to work on some of the less crucial areas of the scenes. Francescho ignores Cosmo’s plans. He paints the Black fieldworker, depicting him as a symbol of strength, and models the muses after Isotta. The Falcon tries to tell Francescho that his work is too radical, but Francescho refuses to change it. Eventually, the quality and impact of Francescho’s work convinces the Falcon to back down, and he allows Francescho to keep the Black worker in exchange for other concessions to convention. The Falcon grabs Francescho’s crotch in friendly approval, and realizes that Francescho was born female, though he doesn’t seem to think less of him for it. The rate of pay for working on the fresco doesn’t even cover the cost of Francescho’s materials, but Francescho has faith that the Duke will be just and pay him fairly when he sees the quality of his work. The other painters send a missive to the Duke asking for a pay rise, and Ercole fakes Francescho’s signature on the letter. Francescho sends Ercole away in punishment, but not before agreeing to a bet that the Duke will agree to pay Francescho above the current rate if Francescho writes individually. The Duke refuses, and a disillusioned Francescho paints his own damning eyes above the head of Borso—which he inverts from its usual position on official stamps and medals—before leaving in disgust. On his way out of the city, Ercole catches up to him in order to cash in on his bet and continue his studies under Francescho.