DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36838#0148
CASTIGLIONE AND THE DUCHESS 93
Elisabetta was not only the fair Galatea for whom all
the shepherds on the banks of Metaurus sighed in
vain, the divine Dido whose lament would have melted
the hardest heart, or the Siren whose voice charmed
mortal cares away, but the obj ect of his silent worship,
the mistress to whom his allegiance was pledged, and
whom he served with true and lifelong devotion.
Chroniclers and biographers agree in ascribing these
sentiments to Castiglione, and give us many instances
of the secret passion that he cherished for his mis-
tress. Beffa-Negrinid the family historian, tells us
of the two sonnets, evidently inspired by hopeless
love for some exalted object, that were placed by him
in 1517, together with the portrait of a most beautiful
and illustrious lady, by the hand of Raphael of
Urbino, at the back of a splendid mirror in his house
at Mantua. Here they were found forty-three years
later by his daughter-in-law, Countess Caterina
Mandello, who touched a secret spring at the back of
the glass and discovered Raphaels painting and the
sonnets composed by Castiglione among the ruins of
ancient Rome, and written by his own hand. The
portrait has unfortunately never come to light, but
the sonnets are printed in Serassi's collection,^ and
are among the best which the Count ever wrote.
It is difficult to say whether Castiglione's devotion
to Elisabetta was more than a merely poetic senti-
ment, common to courtiers and poets in that age; but
there are passages in his ' Cortegiano ' which seem to
show that the feelings which he cherished for the
Duchess were of a deeper and more enduring nature.
' I must confess/ he writes in his dedication to
1 'Elogi di B. Castiglione/ 415 ; Marliani, 330; A. Dumesnil,
' Histoire des Amateurs italiens.'
2 Serassi, ii. 286.
Elisabetta was not only the fair Galatea for whom all
the shepherds on the banks of Metaurus sighed in
vain, the divine Dido whose lament would have melted
the hardest heart, or the Siren whose voice charmed
mortal cares away, but the obj ect of his silent worship,
the mistress to whom his allegiance was pledged, and
whom he served with true and lifelong devotion.
Chroniclers and biographers agree in ascribing these
sentiments to Castiglione, and give us many instances
of the secret passion that he cherished for his mis-
tress. Beffa-Negrinid the family historian, tells us
of the two sonnets, evidently inspired by hopeless
love for some exalted object, that were placed by him
in 1517, together with the portrait of a most beautiful
and illustrious lady, by the hand of Raphael of
Urbino, at the back of a splendid mirror in his house
at Mantua. Here they were found forty-three years
later by his daughter-in-law, Countess Caterina
Mandello, who touched a secret spring at the back of
the glass and discovered Raphaels painting and the
sonnets composed by Castiglione among the ruins of
ancient Rome, and written by his own hand. The
portrait has unfortunately never come to light, but
the sonnets are printed in Serassi's collection,^ and
are among the best which the Count ever wrote.
It is difficult to say whether Castiglione's devotion
to Elisabetta was more than a merely poetic senti-
ment, common to courtiers and poets in that age; but
there are passages in his ' Cortegiano ' which seem to
show that the feelings which he cherished for the
Duchess were of a deeper and more enduring nature.
' I must confess/ he writes in his dedication to
1 'Elogi di B. Castiglione/ 415 ; Marliani, 330; A. Dumesnil,
' Histoire des Amateurs italiens.'
2 Serassi, ii. 286.