Romance of Roman Villas (The Renaissance)

d Sodoma) to Giulio Romano, p

and sometime

aint pots and brushes, flesh pots and flagons, feasts of reason and of unreason, wherein we w

oman days in order to leave to the world some record of the more intimate private life of our friend,

hine and caused many a briar-rose to blossom in the thorny tangle of my life. I knew him also before you, in the summer of 1503, at Siena; and it is of certain pranks in that early comradeship that I will now write. Raphael was then a youth of scarce twenty years. He had come fresh from his app

d me to friendship and I strove to enlighten his ignorance. Chigi had placed at our joint disposition a loft in his stables wh

d friends. I had the run of his stables and many a reckless ride have we enjoyed together. I was fond of all sports which were spiced with danger, and particularly of hunting. But there was no sport I loved so well as a practical joke, no game that for me had so

illa in the expectation of guests, and I was alone save for the company of my ape, Ciacco, which I had purchased of some s

ed the road to Siena. Two sumpter mules, guarded by armed men, had just passed on in the direction of the city, and following at some dista

pushing them to the utmost, anxious, doubtless, to rejoin th

an a sufficiently sinister appearance. Certain it is they took me for a bandit and their faces blanched. T

times possessed moved me to personate the character for which he took me,

eadily, "but I will blow this whistle and bid

one not altogether devoid of courtesy. I therefore ask but a kiss from your pretty daughter, and that

d been pale hithert

l, but let my niece pass on unmolested. She will send back wh

u will not deny, for I have ridden far to-day, and have the thirst of the evil one." The man's only reply was to cut the

ive and clambering up the lady's draperies seized on the swaying pouch, which his sharp teeth managed to unr

ood was up. I was not to be defrauded of my prey, and as the traveller was on the point of dismounting, I fired my arquebus in the air, and so terrified his horse that it galloped after the fleeing maiden. Its rider was also well

ime I hastened to rescue the melon from my pet, but his strong hands had already rent it asunder, and to my astonishment there rol

ir brilliant fellows by the skill with which they had been cut into cameos and intaglios. It needed but a glance at an amethyst incised with a scene from the history of Cupid, and Psyche, and at another larger stone bearing a marvellous Apollo and Marsyas, to realise that they were antiques of inestimab

agments of the melon-rind that no stray gem should escape me; but it was with sinc

hem to the little casket carefully corded and sealed the same, and sat for a long time racking my brains for some issue from the dilemma. I was awakened from my dreams by a servant who announced that dinner was served, and that his master awaited my coming to present me to his guests. While hastily dressing, I resolved at the first opportunity

recognise me,-was by no means in good form, nor did he regale us with any of those witty stories for which he is so justly famed, but sighed and groaned between every mouthful. His misfortune had so afflicted him that he could not keep silence, and disregarding my presence, which indeed he hardly noticed, he poured forth the cause of his woe. The gems

his father, was in an agony of despair. "I will bring this highwayman to the gallow

may be?" I asked, for the humour

"but the description given by my friend is s

ice which I could not fail to recognise; and on his croup an enormous baboon, as dangerous and malignant a beast as his master,

d never seen Ciacco; "there is no such creature in Siena. This description shall

but turning to the Signorina I asked he

es were not green, for I marked them well, and they were black and merry as your own, nor was his

d her uncle. "He was twice your weight and bulk. I would know

ut your fruit as well. However, since you have a fondness for melons I may be able to furnish t

joke, but on opening my door a cry of dismay escaped me. My window was broken, the cor

o confession. I reflected that though the Signorina Dovizio might have shrewd suspicions she could bring forward no proofs. Ciacco, my compromising partner in crime, had fled. No one at the villa knew that I had ever owned such a pet. Even Raphael had not seen him, for he had been busy in Siena for

ntent. The Chancellor gave himself up to the delay with such resignation that I presently perceived that he had business of his own at Cetinale other than procuring funds for his patron, that in fact he had brought his niece in the hope of securing for her husband the banker Chigi, a good match even then in point of fortu

not idle. It was the lady whom he first wounded, though we suspected it not at the time. Later, in Rome, the Signora Giovanna de Rovere gave me a letter written her by Maria Dovizio when at Cetinale,

in

y Imperia), by Sebast

in

d Child,

oteca

Rovere (Sister of the Duke of Urbino), Duch

Octobe

, most beloved, a

will now relate. On our way to Siena we fell in with a bandit who robbed us, and though my uncle is tarrying here in the hope of the

e, called Giovanni Bazzi, and why his comrade, Raphael Santi, should hold him in affection I can by no means understand, unless the vulgar saying be indeed true that love goes by contraries. In presenting Raphael to us our host assured my uncle that though as a painter he is as yet unknown he is destine

na and Child-which I scarce regarded until Raphael praised its exce

e pished and poohed, saying that this sentimentality was but a feeble reflection of his master Da Vinci; and our host cut the discussion short by demanding that Raphael should show his own work. This he c

old acquaintanceship. It was Chigi's chance remark that Raphael was a native of Urbino, where he had b

ow you were held in love and admiration of all, then it was that our common affection for yo

the Gonfalonier of Florence, whither he intends later to journey. But my uncle learning of this later was duly impr

e abide, and concerning whose honesty I have of late entertained very grave suspicions. So serious indeed are they that I will not at present divulge them but shall continue to watch the rogue, knowing that the

there assembled and chiefly the painter Frate, formerly known as Ba

might carry my box of colours with me, and might sometimes see as in a vision a face like thine to paint from.' Then was I seized with a foolish timidity so t

y picture. I wish to depict the Virgin at the time of her betrothal to St. Joseph, And to show a soul as pure as any of Fra Angelico's angels shining through a body that shall have all the perf

ndeed, I would that I might pose for thy painting; but, al

d some likeness to myself in the Sposalizio, though I had given Raphael no si

icture before it should be sent to the monks for whom it was painted, and while I stood entranced with its exceeding loveli

g, to be placed over night before the altar, with the understanding, in which Mary herself meekly acquiesced, that he whose staff budded should become her husband. On the morrow Joseph's staff was found to have put forth blossoms. This legend, as you see, our artist

ncing to spy leaning against his easel, the rod upon which Raphael was wont to rest his hand while painting, he very slyly made fas

dily called our host's attention to the decorated rod, and the signification

f the jest was his scapegrace friend and extorted from him full confession of his

for sympathy in my trouble, to you sweet lady who cannot fail to think me sadly love-sick and bold, but I pray you chide me not, seeing the matter can go no further, for I learn that Raphael has been recalled to Urbino by your ladyship's brother to execute certain commissions. So that your ladyship will soon see him and will have an opportunity of learning from him whether he at all regrets leaving Siena, though I beg that you will ascertain this without so much as suffering him to suspect that I have in

er of Lazarus, my patroness, to keep me constant in this min

a Dov

prankish fop" and "graceless fellow"-whose affection had indeed been hitherto no great compliment to a woman, being lightly caught and as lightly lost-was to his own surprise falling very honestly in love. So accustomed was I to the attraction of false lights that I said to