Prince of Foxes Cut from the same cloth as Pedro de Vargas in Captain from Castile, Andrea Orsini in Prince of Foxes (1947) is both more interesting and less believable than his Spanish cousin. Whereas Pedro is not much different at the end of his story than he is at the beginning — the simple, extroverted hero — Andrea is a man of more complexity and dimension. An opportunist, ruthless and cynical in his attitudes, he is reawakened to probity and decency. He changes in the course of his story. At the same time, Shellabarger has made Andrea so much the Renaissance man par excellence — master of diplomacy and wit, painter whose work rivals that of the great Mantegna, composer and musician, supreme strategist of sieges and battles — that it is hard to believe this low-born youth could be so adept at all the Renaissance...