DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51584#0219
IL FRANCIA.
215
picture by Francia, a Madonna and Child, is now
in the possession of Mr. Frankland Lewis.
It is pleasant to be assured that the life and cha-
racter of Francia were in harmony with his genius.
Vasari describes him as a man of comely aspect, of
exemplary morals, of amiable and cheerful man-
ners : in conversation so witty, so wise, and so
agreeable, that in discourse with him the saddest
man would have felt his melancholy dissipated, his
cares forgotten; adding that he was loved and
venerated not only by his family and fellow-citizens,
but by strangers and the princes in whose service
he was employed. A most interesting circumstance
in the life of Francia was his friendship and corre-
spondence with the youthful Raphael, who was
thirty-four years younger than himself. There is
extant a letter which Raphael addressed to Francia
in the year 1508. In this letter, which is expressed
with exceeding kindness and deference, Raphael
excuses himself for not having painted his own por-
trait for his friend, and promises to send it soon;
he presents him with his design for the Nativity,
and requests to have in return Francia’s design for
the Judith,* to be placed among his most precious
treasures; he alludes, but discreetly, to the grief
which Francia must have felt when his patron
Bentivoglio was exiled from Bologna by Pope
* This drawing is said to exist in the collection of the
Archduke Charles, at Vienna.—See Passavant.
215
picture by Francia, a Madonna and Child, is now
in the possession of Mr. Frankland Lewis.
It is pleasant to be assured that the life and cha-
racter of Francia were in harmony with his genius.
Vasari describes him as a man of comely aspect, of
exemplary morals, of amiable and cheerful man-
ners : in conversation so witty, so wise, and so
agreeable, that in discourse with him the saddest
man would have felt his melancholy dissipated, his
cares forgotten; adding that he was loved and
venerated not only by his family and fellow-citizens,
but by strangers and the princes in whose service
he was employed. A most interesting circumstance
in the life of Francia was his friendship and corre-
spondence with the youthful Raphael, who was
thirty-four years younger than himself. There is
extant a letter which Raphael addressed to Francia
in the year 1508. In this letter, which is expressed
with exceeding kindness and deference, Raphael
excuses himself for not having painted his own por-
trait for his friend, and promises to send it soon;
he presents him with his design for the Nativity,
and requests to have in return Francia’s design for
the Judith,* to be placed among his most precious
treasures; he alludes, but discreetly, to the grief
which Francia must have felt when his patron
Bentivoglio was exiled from Bologna by Pope
* This drawing is said to exist in the collection of the
Archduke Charles, at Vienna.—See Passavant.