DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42863#0028
8
MEDALS AND STATUES
have already told several Cardinals that you are
coming to Rome without fail, and I know they will
give you so warm a welcome, and you will be so
happy, and this place and everything here will
please you so well, that you will grieve to leave
it, and will often wish to return, and this for many
reasons. Because, in the first place, you will find
sweet and pleasant company, most of all that of
Madonna Felice, the Pope’s daughter, a most charm-
ing lady, of rare intellect and goodness, very fond
of antiques, of letters, and of all good works, and
a devoted slave of Your Highness, as she has often
told me. I rejoice to hear of your fine boy. Thank
God your illness has ended so happily ! Be of good
cheer, dear lady, and may God give you much joy
in your children. I repeat that the Cupid which
Brognolo has secured for you is a most rare and
excellent thing, and I swear, by the God I adore,
that if it had been bought for any one but Your
Highness it should never have left Rome. In old
days, when I was a boy, I used all my power and
skill to prevent such things going to the Cardinal
of Aragon and Lorenzo dei Medici, because it grieved
me then, as it still grieves me to-day, to see Rome
stripped of all its treasures. And there are few such
marbles left here now. But for Your Excellency’s
sake I would do anything, and care for nothing
else in the world as long as I am able to please
you.—Your servant, Zoan Cristoforo Romano.”1
Cristoforo’s description of the rage for antiques
which prevailed at the time in Rome, and of the
difficulty of securing any really good work at a
reasonable price, is confirmed by another of Isabella’s
1 A. Venturi, op. cit.
MEDALS AND STATUES
have already told several Cardinals that you are
coming to Rome without fail, and I know they will
give you so warm a welcome, and you will be so
happy, and this place and everything here will
please you so well, that you will grieve to leave
it, and will often wish to return, and this for many
reasons. Because, in the first place, you will find
sweet and pleasant company, most of all that of
Madonna Felice, the Pope’s daughter, a most charm-
ing lady, of rare intellect and goodness, very fond
of antiques, of letters, and of all good works, and
a devoted slave of Your Highness, as she has often
told me. I rejoice to hear of your fine boy. Thank
God your illness has ended so happily ! Be of good
cheer, dear lady, and may God give you much joy
in your children. I repeat that the Cupid which
Brognolo has secured for you is a most rare and
excellent thing, and I swear, by the God I adore,
that if it had been bought for any one but Your
Highness it should never have left Rome. In old
days, when I was a boy, I used all my power and
skill to prevent such things going to the Cardinal
of Aragon and Lorenzo dei Medici, because it grieved
me then, as it still grieves me to-day, to see Rome
stripped of all its treasures. And there are few such
marbles left here now. But for Your Excellency’s
sake I would do anything, and care for nothing
else in the world as long as I am able to please
you.—Your servant, Zoan Cristoforo Romano.”1
Cristoforo’s description of the rage for antiques
which prevailed at the time in Rome, and of the
difficulty of securing any really good work at a
reasonable price, is confirmed by another of Isabella’s
1 A. Venturi, op. cit.