Among Titian's wealthy patrons was a certain Duke of Urbino, Francesco
Maria della Rovere, who, as the general-in-chief of the Venetian forces,
came to Venice to live when our artist was at the height of his fame.
From this time till the Duke's death the painter was brought into
relations with this noble family. This was the period when the Bella was
painted, and the picture has, as we shall see, an intimate connection
with these patrons.
The Duke's wife was Eleanora Gonzaga, sister of the Duke of Mantua,
celebrated for her beauty and refinement. A contemporary (Baldassare
Castiglione) writing of the lady, says: "If ever there were united
wisdom, grace, beauty, genius, courtesy, gentleness, and refined
manners, it was in her person, where these combined qualities form a
chain adorning her every movement."
The Duke himself was deeply in love with his wife. A week after his
marriage he wrote that "he had never met a more comely, merry, or sweet
girl, who to a most amiable disposition added a surprisingly precocious
judgment, which gained for her general admiration." Eleanora, on her
part A showed an undeviating affection for her husband, and they lived
together happily.
From the date of her marriage, we can reckon that the Duchess must have
been well into her thirties when she came to Venice to live. From a
portrait Titian painted of her, when she was about forty, we see that
much of the fresh beauty of her girlhood had faded. She had, however,
good features, with large, fine eyes and arching brows. Her figure was
graceful and her neck beautiful: the head was particularly well set.
All these qualities kindled the artistic imagination of Titian. In the
matron of forty his inner eye caught a vision of the belle of twenty.
Thereupon, he wrought an artist's miracle: he painted pictures of
Eleanora as she had looked twenty years before. One of these, and
perhaps the most famous, is the Bella of our illustration.[14] The
identity of the original is hidden under this simple title, which is an
Italian word, meaning the Beauty. An ancient legend tells of a wonderful
fountain, by drinking of which a man, though old, might renew his youth
and be, like the gods, immortal. There were some who went in quest of
these waters, among them, as we remember, the Spanish knight, Ponce de
Leon, who, thinking to find them north of Cuba, discovered our Florida.
The Duchess of Urbino found such a fountain of youth in the art of
Titian. Comparing her actual portrait with the Bella, painted within a
few years, it seems as if the lady of the former had quaffed the magic
draught which had restored her to her youthful beauty.
[Illustration: Picture from Carbon Print by Braun, Clément & Co.
John Andrew & Son. Sc.