DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32874#0525
CH. xvi] LIFE OF BENVENUTO CELLINI 439
and by that route they went to Pisa/ The Cardinal
hrst of all the others, imbibed the poison of that bad air;
so that after a few days a pestilential fever attacked
him and in a short time slew him/ This (son) was the
and upon his return assumed the government of the Grand-Duchy,
which his father renounced in his favour on June nth 1563. Accord-
ing to GALLUZZI rz'A) it was at this period that the relations
commenced between this prince and the celebrated Bianca Cap-
pello, who, having fled from Venice with the Florentine bank-clerk,
Pietro Buonaventuri, married her lover in Florence on December
12th 1563. Notwithstanding Francesco's own marriage with Joanna
of Austria, his amours with the beautiful Venetian continued;
and he sent his own portrait in wax to her, accompanied by
a note, couched in the following terms: " Beloved Bianca.
Even from Pisa I send my portrait that our master Cellini has
made. In it accept my heart. D. FRANCIESCO." This portrait, of
which, however, the original is unknown, was for many
years preserved in the Geppi family at Prato, whence it passed
into the hands of Commendatore Vai of Florence, where it now is.
The execution is extremely fine, and from the apparent age of the
sitter, it would seem to have been executed about 1570, when
Francesco was thirty years of age. (<y CESARE GUASTI,
Vol. I, pp. 3-5; G. E. SALTINI in the Z<2Asv^7z<3 A^^M7z<a:Z, Zhw.
1, 1898; and PLON, Paris, Plon, 1884.)
In the /7zwg7z^7y made after Cellini's death, to which we have
already referred so often, we find: " No. 334. Zk/g -svzzAVzTzz* Zz yz-
zVzz^z N^^7zz'jjz77z^ Wz7z<yzjz5^, sketches, perhaps for
this very work.
* Duke Cosimo, accompanied by his wife and children, left Flor-
ence in October 1562, and, travelling by way of Siena and Grosseto,
reached the fortress of Rosignano.
s Cardinal Giovanni, Archbishop of Pisa, died at Rosignano on
November 21st 1562, not without suspicion of poison. His brothers,
Don Garzia and Don Ferdinando, also fell ill, and the former died
at Pisa on December 6th following; and twelve days later (18th)
the Grand-Duchess Eleonora died also. It was not unnatural that,
after the fashion of the times, endless stories of poison and other,
even more tragic, reports should have been set afloat to account
and by that route they went to Pisa/ The Cardinal
hrst of all the others, imbibed the poison of that bad air;
so that after a few days a pestilential fever attacked
him and in a short time slew him/ This (son) was the
and upon his return assumed the government of the Grand-Duchy,
which his father renounced in his favour on June nth 1563. Accord-
ing to GALLUZZI rz'A) it was at this period that the relations
commenced between this prince and the celebrated Bianca Cap-
pello, who, having fled from Venice with the Florentine bank-clerk,
Pietro Buonaventuri, married her lover in Florence on December
12th 1563. Notwithstanding Francesco's own marriage with Joanna
of Austria, his amours with the beautiful Venetian continued;
and he sent his own portrait in wax to her, accompanied by
a note, couched in the following terms: " Beloved Bianca.
Even from Pisa I send my portrait that our master Cellini has
made. In it accept my heart. D. FRANCIESCO." This portrait, of
which, however, the original is unknown, was for many
years preserved in the Geppi family at Prato, whence it passed
into the hands of Commendatore Vai of Florence, where it now is.
The execution is extremely fine, and from the apparent age of the
sitter, it would seem to have been executed about 1570, when
Francesco was thirty years of age. (<y CESARE GUASTI,
Vol. I, pp. 3-5; G. E. SALTINI in the Z<2Asv^7z<3 A^^M7z<a:Z, Zhw.
1, 1898; and PLON, Paris, Plon, 1884.)
In the /7zwg7z^7y made after Cellini's death, to which we have
already referred so often, we find: " No. 334. Zk/g -svzzAVzTzz* Zz yz-
zVzz^z N^^7zz'jjz77z^ Wz7z<yzjz5^, sketches, perhaps for
this very work.
* Duke Cosimo, accompanied by his wife and children, left Flor-
ence in October 1562, and, travelling by way of Siena and Grosseto,
reached the fortress of Rosignano.
s Cardinal Giovanni, Archbishop of Pisa, died at Rosignano on
November 21st 1562, not without suspicion of poison. His brothers,
Don Garzia and Don Ferdinando, also fell ill, and the former died
at Pisa on December 6th following; and twelve days later (18th)
the Grand-Duchess Eleonora died also. It was not unnatural that,
after the fashion of the times, endless stories of poison and other,
even more tragic, reports should have been set afloat to account