DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42861#0126
92
GIOVANNI SANTI
and often look at it, although, from what Jacopo
says and from our own recollection, neither portrait
resembles you very much. But we know how
difficult it is to find painters who take good like-
nesses from life, and shall try to supply the artist’s
deficiencies with the help of the information given
us by Margherita, Jacopo, and others who have lately
seen you, so that we may not be deceived in our idea
of you. We thank you exceedingly for your kind-
ness, and beg you to keep the promise made us
through Jacopo, that you will send us another on
panel, and we will do the same in compliance with
your request. We do not say that you will see a
beautiful picture, but at least you will have in your
house a portrait of one who is your most loving
sister.”
But when, a fortnight later, Andrea’s portrait was
finished, it failed to satisfy Isabella’s critical taste.
“We are much vexed,” she writes on the 20th of
April, “ that we are unable to send you our portrait,
because the painter has done it so badly that it does
not resemble us in the very least. But we have
sent for a foreign artist who has the reputation of
taking excellent likenesses, and as soon as it is ready
we will send it to Your Highness, who will not forget
that we are altogether devoted to you.”
The foreign master was Giovanni Santi, the father
of Raphael, who had been evidently recommended to
Isabella by her sister-in-law, the Duchess of Urbino.
Elisabetta sent him without delay, and he spent some
time at Mantua that summer painting a series of family
portraits—probably for the decoration of some hall in
one of the Gonzaga villas—and began a picture of
Isabella. Unluckily, before it was finished he fell ill
GIOVANNI SANTI
and often look at it, although, from what Jacopo
says and from our own recollection, neither portrait
resembles you very much. But we know how
difficult it is to find painters who take good like-
nesses from life, and shall try to supply the artist’s
deficiencies with the help of the information given
us by Margherita, Jacopo, and others who have lately
seen you, so that we may not be deceived in our idea
of you. We thank you exceedingly for your kind-
ness, and beg you to keep the promise made us
through Jacopo, that you will send us another on
panel, and we will do the same in compliance with
your request. We do not say that you will see a
beautiful picture, but at least you will have in your
house a portrait of one who is your most loving
sister.”
But when, a fortnight later, Andrea’s portrait was
finished, it failed to satisfy Isabella’s critical taste.
“We are much vexed,” she writes on the 20th of
April, “ that we are unable to send you our portrait,
because the painter has done it so badly that it does
not resemble us in the very least. But we have
sent for a foreign artist who has the reputation of
taking excellent likenesses, and as soon as it is ready
we will send it to Your Highness, who will not forget
that we are altogether devoted to you.”
The foreign master was Giovanni Santi, the father
of Raphael, who had been evidently recommended to
Isabella by her sister-in-law, the Duchess of Urbino.
Elisabetta sent him without delay, and he spent some
time at Mantua that summer painting a series of family
portraits—probably for the decoration of some hall in
one of the Gonzaga villas—and began a picture of
Isabella. Unluckily, before it was finished he fell ill