DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42863#0125
PORTRAIT OF ISABELLA
103
marry again, and ended her days in a convent at
Carpi. The poet had another patron in Isabella’s
devoted friend, Margherita Cantelma, the widowed
Duchess of Sora, who had accompanied her on this
occasion to Garda. As they travelled along the
shores of the fair lake, Margherita told the Marchesa
of the new book which the Vicentine poet had com-
posed—a symposium in the style of Castiglione’s
Cortigiano on the fair women of ancient and modern
times. The scene is laid in the Cantelma Palace at
Ferrara, and one of the speakers, Vincenzo Magre,
after enumerating the beauties of Milan and Ferrara,
Florence and Vicenza, paints a glowing picture of an
unknown lady whom he saw descend from her chariot
in the streets of Milan and go into the Duomo with
a prayer-book open in her hand. “Neither Man-
tegna, nor Vinci, nor yet Apelles could ever do her
justice. Petrarch has best described her in his lines :
Una Donna pin bella assai chel sole. So she dawned
upon my eyes, a lady more radiant than the sun, with
golden hair falling on her shoulders, loosely caught up
in a tan-coloured silk net, with knots of fine gold,
through which her locks shone like bright rays of
light ; a sparkling ruby and large pearl glittered on
her forehead, a rope of pearls hung from her neck to
her waist, her black velvet robe was embroidered in
gold—in short, everything she wore was the work of
the finest craftsmen.” Here the second speaker, who
is no less a personage than Pietro Bembo, the prince
of humanists, breaks in : “ Say no more ! I know the
lady of whom you speak—Madonna, the Marchesa of
Mantova, who is honoured and loved by the whole
world. But you have only seen her once, while I
have often spoken with her, and can tell of her
103
marry again, and ended her days in a convent at
Carpi. The poet had another patron in Isabella’s
devoted friend, Margherita Cantelma, the widowed
Duchess of Sora, who had accompanied her on this
occasion to Garda. As they travelled along the
shores of the fair lake, Margherita told the Marchesa
of the new book which the Vicentine poet had com-
posed—a symposium in the style of Castiglione’s
Cortigiano on the fair women of ancient and modern
times. The scene is laid in the Cantelma Palace at
Ferrara, and one of the speakers, Vincenzo Magre,
after enumerating the beauties of Milan and Ferrara,
Florence and Vicenza, paints a glowing picture of an
unknown lady whom he saw descend from her chariot
in the streets of Milan and go into the Duomo with
a prayer-book open in her hand. “Neither Man-
tegna, nor Vinci, nor yet Apelles could ever do her
justice. Petrarch has best described her in his lines :
Una Donna pin bella assai chel sole. So she dawned
upon my eyes, a lady more radiant than the sun, with
golden hair falling on her shoulders, loosely caught up
in a tan-coloured silk net, with knots of fine gold,
through which her locks shone like bright rays of
light ; a sparkling ruby and large pearl glittered on
her forehead, a rope of pearls hung from her neck to
her waist, her black velvet robe was embroidered in
gold—in short, everything she wore was the work of
the finest craftsmen.” Here the second speaker, who
is no less a personage than Pietro Bembo, the prince
of humanists, breaks in : “ Say no more ! I know the
lady of whom you speak—Madonna, the Marchesa of
Mantova, who is honoured and loved by the whole
world. But you have only seen her once, while I
have often spoken with her, and can tell of her