DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.36838#0151
96 COUNT BALDA8SARE CASTIGEIONE
' that pleasant land where the most joyous years of
my life were spent A
It is Castiglione himself who has enabled us to
realize in some degree the manner of life that these
men led at the court of Urbino. In the pages of the
' Cortegiano' he has, in his own words, given us ' a
faithful portrait of Guidobaldo s court, not indeed
by the hand of Raphael or Michelangelo, but by a
humble painter who could only trace the chief out-
lines of the picture, and knew not how to adorn the
truth with gay colours, or by the art of perspective
make that which is not appear as if it were/
In spite of these modest expressions, the picture
is drawn by a master-hand. The outlines of the
sketch are clear and vigorous ; the colours are laid
on, the lights and shadows tilled in, with rare literary
skill. The form is taken from classical models, but
the pulse of warm human life beats through the even
How of the narrative at every page. The dialogues
are interspersed, after the fashion of contemporary
plays, with lively interludes, with merry jests and
witty stories, with games and dances, and the whole
reHects, as in a mirror, the calm and joyous life which
tiie author and his friends led at the court of Urbino
in the golden days of the Renaissance.
The time, Castiglione begins by telling us, was
divided between intellectual and physical exercises,
honourable and enjoyable both to body and mind.
The high ideal held up in his book had penetrated
deeply into the heart of Italian society, and there
was no one at the ducal court who doubted the
truth of his assertion that mental culture formed
part of a perfect knight's equipment. Guidobaldo s
* ' Lettere/ iii. 69, iv. 39-
' that pleasant land where the most joyous years of
my life were spent A
It is Castiglione himself who has enabled us to
realize in some degree the manner of life that these
men led at the court of Urbino. In the pages of the
' Cortegiano' he has, in his own words, given us ' a
faithful portrait of Guidobaldo s court, not indeed
by the hand of Raphael or Michelangelo, but by a
humble painter who could only trace the chief out-
lines of the picture, and knew not how to adorn the
truth with gay colours, or by the art of perspective
make that which is not appear as if it were/
In spite of these modest expressions, the picture
is drawn by a master-hand. The outlines of the
sketch are clear and vigorous ; the colours are laid
on, the lights and shadows tilled in, with rare literary
skill. The form is taken from classical models, but
the pulse of warm human life beats through the even
How of the narrative at every page. The dialogues
are interspersed, after the fashion of contemporary
plays, with lively interludes, with merry jests and
witty stories, with games and dances, and the whole
reHects, as in a mirror, the calm and joyous life which
tiie author and his friends led at the court of Urbino
in the golden days of the Renaissance.
The time, Castiglione begins by telling us, was
divided between intellectual and physical exercises,
honourable and enjoyable both to body and mind.
The high ideal held up in his book had penetrated
deeply into the heart of Italian society, and there
was no one at the ducal court who doubted the
truth of his assertion that mental culture formed
part of a perfect knight's equipment. Guidobaldo s
* ' Lettere/ iii. 69, iv. 39-