DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42129#0084
30
VILLA LANTE.
plan of the house and gardens, none having been taken during the time
Prince Borghese was in possession. The two designs before us form the
decoration of two of the smaller rooms, called those of Fornarina, and of
the Poets. They are similar in the general arrangement of the paintings.
In the centre of each we observe the arms of the Lanti within a massive
octagonal frame \ partly in colour, partly in white stucco. In each room
the four sides of the coves of the ceiling are adorned with as many medal-
lions; in one (Plate 19) are represented the portraits of four females,
among which that of the Fornarina alone is familiar to us ; in the other
(Plate 20) are the same number of portraits of men. Among these, two
represent Dante and Petrarch, whence we may conclude that the other
two also were designed to commemorate celebrated poets. Indeed it is
the vulgar opinion, that Ariosto and Tasso are the subjects of the two
remaining paintings ; hut as Tasso was born in 1544, and the Villa Lante
was painted about 1524, the name of the latter has evidently been misap-
plied ; and we are therefore inclined to believe the fourth portrait, in the
costume of a canon of Florence, to be that of Angelo Poliziano, the great
and learned friend of Turini, the preceptor of Leo X., and the only poet
of that time who could be placed in such company. This view, too, is
confirmed by the circumstance, that there exists in the Holbein Collection
at Basle a portrait of Poliziano, not only painted in the same dress, but
bearing, in other respects, the greatest resemblance to the one in question.
The four female portraits have, in like manner, been called the mistresses
of Raphael, or his models 1 2 ; but can it be supposed that the artist would
have placed the portraits of mistresses, professedly as such, in the house of
Turini? Is it not much more likely that these beautiful countenances are the
representations of Beatrice, Laura, Ursolina, and Cassandra, to correspond
with Dante, Petrarch, Ariosto, and Poliziano? It need not be objected,
that Ursolina, whose family name has not been disclosed by Ariosto,
1 See add. Plate 1, n°. 19.
2 See Recueil d’Estampes, gravées d’après des Peintures antiques Italiennes, &c. &c., par Aug.
Boucher Desnoyers. Paris, 1821 ; pag. 9.
VILLA LANTE.
plan of the house and gardens, none having been taken during the time
Prince Borghese was in possession. The two designs before us form the
decoration of two of the smaller rooms, called those of Fornarina, and of
the Poets. They are similar in the general arrangement of the paintings.
In the centre of each we observe the arms of the Lanti within a massive
octagonal frame \ partly in colour, partly in white stucco. In each room
the four sides of the coves of the ceiling are adorned with as many medal-
lions; in one (Plate 19) are represented the portraits of four females,
among which that of the Fornarina alone is familiar to us ; in the other
(Plate 20) are the same number of portraits of men. Among these, two
represent Dante and Petrarch, whence we may conclude that the other
two also were designed to commemorate celebrated poets. Indeed it is
the vulgar opinion, that Ariosto and Tasso are the subjects of the two
remaining paintings ; hut as Tasso was born in 1544, and the Villa Lante
was painted about 1524, the name of the latter has evidently been misap-
plied ; and we are therefore inclined to believe the fourth portrait, in the
costume of a canon of Florence, to be that of Angelo Poliziano, the great
and learned friend of Turini, the preceptor of Leo X., and the only poet
of that time who could be placed in such company. This view, too, is
confirmed by the circumstance, that there exists in the Holbein Collection
at Basle a portrait of Poliziano, not only painted in the same dress, but
bearing, in other respects, the greatest resemblance to the one in question.
The four female portraits have, in like manner, been called the mistresses
of Raphael, or his models 1 2 ; but can it be supposed that the artist would
have placed the portraits of mistresses, professedly as such, in the house of
Turini? Is it not much more likely that these beautiful countenances are the
representations of Beatrice, Laura, Ursolina, and Cassandra, to correspond
with Dante, Petrarch, Ariosto, and Poliziano? It need not be objected,
that Ursolina, whose family name has not been disclosed by Ariosto,
1 See add. Plate 1, n°. 19.
2 See Recueil d’Estampes, gravées d’après des Peintures antiques Italiennes, &c. &c., par Aug.
Boucher Desnoyers. Paris, 1821 ; pag. 9.