DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42861#0426
382 LUCREZIA D’ESTE’S CRITICISM
Lucrezia a drawing of herself, from which Francia
promised to paint the picture, with Madonna
Lucrezia’s help. This princess declared that Isabella’s
face was so deeply engraved on her heart that she
felt sure she could describe her features, colouring,
and expression all perfectly. But the war that was
raging at the gates of Bologna, and a tertian ague
which attacked the painter, interfered with his good
intentions, and, after two unsuccessful attempts,
Lucrezia herself had to confess that his portrait was
a failure.
“ Dear and honoured sister,” she wrote on the
7th of September, “ I have lately paid constant
visits to the house of the painter Francia to see how
much his portrait resembled you. To speak frankly,
it does not seem to bear you the least likeness,
representing you as being thinner and more severe-
looking, and altogether different from the picture
which my imagination retains of you ; so I have
begged the painter, for his honour and my satisfac-
tion, to go to Mantua and see Your Excellency in
life, so that his work may really resemble nature.
This, however, he refuses to promise, saying that it is
too dangerous to venture on a comparison in which
chance has more to do than art, as is the case in
trying to paint a life-like portrait. But he promises
to try once more, and to alter anything that I wish
as often as I like, and perhaps by this means he may
be able to produce a better likeness, although I fear
it cannot really resemble you, since he has not seen
you. Meanwhile, I will do my best to persuade him
to come to Mantua.—Your most devoted sister,
Lucretia Estensis.”1
1 Luzio in Emporium, 1901, pp. 427-430.
Lucrezia a drawing of herself, from which Francia
promised to paint the picture, with Madonna
Lucrezia’s help. This princess declared that Isabella’s
face was so deeply engraved on her heart that she
felt sure she could describe her features, colouring,
and expression all perfectly. But the war that was
raging at the gates of Bologna, and a tertian ague
which attacked the painter, interfered with his good
intentions, and, after two unsuccessful attempts,
Lucrezia herself had to confess that his portrait was
a failure.
“ Dear and honoured sister,” she wrote on the
7th of September, “ I have lately paid constant
visits to the house of the painter Francia to see how
much his portrait resembled you. To speak frankly,
it does not seem to bear you the least likeness,
representing you as being thinner and more severe-
looking, and altogether different from the picture
which my imagination retains of you ; so I have
begged the painter, for his honour and my satisfac-
tion, to go to Mantua and see Your Excellency in
life, so that his work may really resemble nature.
This, however, he refuses to promise, saying that it is
too dangerous to venture on a comparison in which
chance has more to do than art, as is the case in
trying to paint a life-like portrait. But he promises
to try once more, and to alter anything that I wish
as often as I like, and perhaps by this means he may
be able to produce a better likeness, although I fear
it cannot really resemble you, since he has not seen
you. Meanwhile, I will do my best to persuade him
to come to Mantua.—Your most devoted sister,
Lucretia Estensis.”1
1 Luzio in Emporium, 1901, pp. 427-430.