same canopy, the great Cardinal riding directly in front of them,
and on the right and left were the proud nobles of Spain and
England, among whom was Pescara. The kings alighted from their
horses at the west door of the cathedral and together paid their
devotions before that rich shrine blazing with jewels. They humbly
knelt on the steps worn by the knees of tens of thousands of
pilgrims."
On the return to Naples of the Marchese di Pescara he told the story of
his regal journey to an assemblage of nobles in the Church of Santa
Maria di Monte Oliveto, and he then joined the Marchesa in Rome, where
she had gone to visit her family and to pay her devotions to Leo X, who
had just created Pompeo Colonna a cardinal.
Pope Leo aspired to draw around him a court distinguished for its
culture and brilliancy in both art and literature. In this court the
Marchesa di Pescara shone resplendent. "She was at the height of her
beauty, and her charms were sung by the poets of the day," says a
contemporary.
A year later Leo X died, succeeded by Adrian (who had been tutor to
Charles V), to the intense and bitter disappointment of Cardinal Wolsey,
who had made the widest--and wiliest--efforts to gratify his own
ambition of reigning in the Papal chair. Again the war between France
and Italy, that which seemed to be a perpetually smouldering feud, and
the Marchese di Pescara, again summoned to battle, was wounded at Pavia.
For some time he lay between life and death at Milan, and a messenger
was sent to beg Vittoria to come to him. She set out on this journey,
leaving Naples in great haste; but on reaching Viterbo another messenger
met her with the tidings of the death of the Marchese, which had
occurred on Nov. 25, 1525. Overcome with grief, Vittoria was carried
back to Rome and for the solace of entire seclusion she sought the
cloistered silence of the convent of San Silvestre, which lay at the
foot of the Monte Cavallo in Rome, almost adjoining the gardens of the
Colonna palace. To the Marchese di Pescara, who had the military rank of
general, was given a funeral of great pomp and splendor in Milan, and
his body was brought to the famous Naples church of Santa Domenica
Maggiore, where it was entombed with the princes and nobles of his
house.
Before the death of the Marchese there had been a political plot to join
the Papal, Venetian, and Milanese forces and rescue Italy from the
Emperor's rule, and the Pope himself had sent a messenger to Pescara
asking him to unite with the league. The Marchese, Spanish by ancestry
and by sympathies, used this knowledge to frustrate the Italian designs
and to warn Spain. The Italian historians have execrated him for this
act, which they regard as that of a traitor. Vittoria, however, did not
take this view apparently, as in a letter to her husband she wrote:--
"Titles and kingdoms do not add to true honor.... I do not desire
to be the wife of a king, but I glory in being the wife of that
great general who shows his bravery in war and, still more, by
magnanimity in peace, surpasses the greatest kings."
The inducement of the throne of Naples had been held out to Marchese di
Pescara. He evidently regarded this in the nature of a dishonorable
bribe, and it is this view which the Marchesa plainly shared.
After his death her first impulse was to take the vows of a cloistered
nun. The Pope himself intervened to dissuade her, and she consented to
enter, only temporarily, the convent of San Silvestre on the Monte
Cavallo.
In the will of the Marchese di Pescara there was a clause directing that
anything in his estate unlawfully acquired should be restored to the
owner; and under this, Vittoria gave back to the monastery of Monte
Cassino the Monte San Magno that had formerly been its property.
From the cloistered shades of the convent Vittoria removed to the family
castle of the Colonna at Marino, where, on the shore of this beautiful
lake (which was the scenery of Virgil's AEneid), she passed some months,
engaged in writing sonnets. Of one of these a translation runs in
part:--
"I write solely to assuage my inward grief, which destroys in my
heart the light of this world's sun; and not to add light to _mio
bel sole_, to his glorified spirit. It is fit that other tongues
should preserve his great name from oblivion."
In another, perhaps her most perfect sonnet, she beseeches the winds to
convey to her beloved the message she sends:--
"_Ch'io di lui sempre pensi; o pianga, o parli_,"--That I always
think of him, or weep for him, or speak of him.
Again, a year later, Vittoria returned to lovely Ischia, which, as one
writer has described, "rises out of the blue billows of the
Mediterranean like giant towers. The immense blocks of stone are heaped
one upon another, in such a supernatural manner as to give a coloring to
the legend, that beneath them, in those vast volcanic caverns, dwells
the giant Tifeo." The castle where the Duchessa Francavilla and the
Marchesa Pescara lived is built on a towering mass of rock joined to the
island by a causeway. The castle includes the palace, a church, and
other buildings for the family and their guests and dependants.
For some three years the Marchesa did not again leave Ischia. In the
mean time volumes of her poems were published. She received the
acclamation of all the writers of her time. The crown of immortelles,
often laid but on a tomb, was continually pressed upon her brow. She was
the most famous woman of her time. Her beauty, her genius, her noble
majesty of character impressed the contemporary world. Her days were
filled with correspondence with the most distinguished men of the day.
Ariosto, Castiglione, Ludovico Dolce, Cardinal Bembo, Cardinal
Contarini, and Paolo Giovio were among her nearer circle of friends.
[Illustration: CASTELLO DI ALFONSO, ISCHIA
_Page 306_]
Stormy times fell upon Italy, in all of which the Colonna family bore
prominent part, and all of which affected the life of Vittoria Colonna
in many ways. Her biography, if written with fulness and accuracy, would
be largely a history of the Italy of that time, for her life seemed
always inseparably united with great events.
In the year 1530 (Clement VII being the Pope) a full Papal pardon had
been extended to all the Colonna, and their castles and estates had also
been restored to them. For years past Rome had been in a state of
conflict. Benvenuto Cellini, who had watched the terrible scenes from
Castel San Angelo where he was immured, has described the terrors. The
Eternal City, whose population under Leo X had been 90,000, was now--in
1530--reduced to half that number. Palaces and temples had been the
scenes of riot and destruction, yet to this very lawlessness of the time
the Roman galleries of the present owe their ancient statues, which were
uncovered by these assaults. The Coliseum was left in the ruined state
in which it is now seen, and by the sale of the stones taken from it the
Palazzo Barberini was erected.
Vittoria, coming again to Rome and revisiting its classic greatness,
exclaimed that happy were they who lived in times so full of grandeur;
to which the poet Molza gallantly replied that they were less happy, as
they had not known her! Everywhere was she received with the highest
honors. She made a tour, visiting Bagni di Lucca, Bologna, and Ferrara,
where she was the guest of the Duca and Duchessa Ercole in the ducal
palace. The Duchessa was the Princesse Renee, the daughter of Louis XII
of France, and an ardent friend of Calvin, who visited her in Ferrara.
It was to this visit that Longfellow refers in his poem entitled
"Michael Angelo," when he pictures Vittoria as sitting for her portrait
to the artist and conversing with her friend Giulia, the Duchess of
Trajetto, Michael Angelo begs them to resume the conversation
interrupted by his entrance, and Vittoria says:--
"Well, first, then, of Duke Ercole, a man
Cold in his manners, and reserved and silent,
And yet magnificent in all his ways."
To which the Duchessa replies:--
"How could the daughter of a king of France
Wed such a duke?"
MICHAEL ANGELO.
"The men that women marry,
And why they marry them, will always be
A marvel and a mystery to the world."
VITTORIA.
"And then the Duchess,--how shall I describe her,
Or tell the merits of that happy nature
Which pleases most when least it thinks of pleasing?
Not beautiful, perhaps, in form and feature,
Yet with an inward beauty, that shines through
Each look and attitude and word and gesture;
A kindly grace of manner and behavior,
A something in her presence and her ways
That makes her beautiful beyond the reach
Of mere external beauty; and in heart
So noble and devoted to the truth,
And so in sympathy with all who strive
After the higher life."
JULIA.
"She draws me to her
As much as her Duke Ercole repels me."
VITTORIA.
"Then the devout and honorable women
That grace her court, and make it good to be there;
Francesca Bucyronia, the true-hearted,
Lavinia della Rovere and the Orsini,
The Magdalena and the Cherubina,
And Anne de Parthenai, who sings so sweetly;
All lovely women, full of noble thoughts
And aspirations after noble things.
* * * * *
With these ladies
Was a young girl, Olympia Morata,
Daughter of Fulvio, the learned scholar,
Famous in all the universities:
A marvellous child, who at the spinning-wheel,
And in the daily round of household cares,
Hath learned both Greek and Latin; and is now
A favorite of the Duchess and companion
Of Princess Anne. This beautiful young Sappho
Sometimes recited to us Grecian odes
That she had written, with a voice whose sadness
Thrilled and o'ermastered me, and made me look
Into the future time, and ask myself
What destiny will be hers."
JULIA.
"And what poets
Were there to sing you madrigals, and praise
Olympia's eyes?" ...
VITTORIA.
"None; for great Ariosto is no more."
* * * * *
JULIA.
"He spake of you."
VITTORIA.
"And of yourself, no less,
And of our master, Michael Angelo."
MICHAEL ANGELO.
"Of me?"
VITTORIA.
"Have you forgotten that he calls you
Michael, less man than angel, and divine?
You are ungrateful."
MICHAEL ANGELO.
"A mere play on words."
The Duca and Duchessa of Ferrara invited the most distinguished persons
in Venice and Bologna and Lombardy to meet their honored guest. Bishop
Ghiberto of Verona besought her to visit that city. Vittoria accepted
and was for some time the Bishop's guest in his palace, and she took
great interest in the historic city. With the Bishop she visited the
ancient Duomo, which in 1160 had been restored by Pope Urban II, and
reconsecrated. It was a strong desire of the Marchesa at this time to
make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; but the journey was then so perilous and
so long--none too easy, indeed, at the present time--that she was
dissuaded from the attempt.
Verona, to do her honor, had a medal struck bearing her portrait. The
group of great artists--Titian, Tintoretto, and Giorgione in Venice; Fra
Angelico, Bartolommeo, and others of that day--were creating their
wonderful works which Vittoria must have seen and enjoyed during this
tour. Raphael, whose death had occurred in 1520, Vittoria had,
doubtless, known; but whether it was she who was the original of the
Muse in his great picture of "Parnassus," as is alleged, is not fully
established.
[Illustration: DETAIL FROM "PARNASSUS," RAPHAEL STANZE,
PALAZZO VATICANO, ROME
Raphael Sanzio
_Page 311_]
"Unto my buried lord I give myself,"
wrote Vittoria Colonna in one of the sonnets to her husband's memory,
and this line is the keynote to her entire life, both as woman and poet.
It was no translation of her life into another key, no reckoning by
stars that flashed from different skies, when there fell upon her the
baptism and crown of that immortal friendship with Michael Angelo.
The Marchesa di Pescara returned to Rome, from this notable tour in
Northern Italy, in 1538. She was received with the honors that her fame
inspired. Michael Angelo was then deeply absorbed in painting his "Last
Judgment," in the Capella Sistina.
"Every one in Rome took an interest in the progress of this magnificent
fresco, from the Pope (who continually visited the artist) down to the
humblest of the people. We may imagine Vittoria standing by the great
painter to view his sublime work; but Michael Angelo did not require the
patronage, even of a Colonna, and it is possible that Vittoria herself
first sought out his friendship."
In the Casa Buonarroti, in Florence, hangs that exquisite picture
painted of Italy's greatest woman poet, in her early youth; and in its
rare and precious collection of manuscripts are the letters of Vittoria
to the poet and sculptor. Her influence is said to have produced a great
change in his religious views, influencing his mind to a more lofty and
more spiritual comprehension of the divine laws that govern the
universe.
Condivi, in referring to this chapter in their lives, has said:--
"In particular he was most deeply attached to the Marchesa di
Pescara, of whose divine spirit he was enamoured, and he was
beloved by her in return with much affection."
It was about 1535 when Michael Angelo left Florence for Rome, appointed
by the Pope, Paul III, as the chief architect, sculptor, and painter of
the Vatican. He was enrolled in the Pontifical household, and he at once
began his work in the Sistine Chapel. Mr. Symonds believes that he must
have been engaged upon the "Last Judgment" through 1536, 1537. The great
artist was not without a keen wit of his own as well; for on receipt of
a letter from Pietro Aretino, from Venice, in September of 1537, with
praises of his work that Michael Angelo deemed extravagant, he replied
that while he rejoiced in Aretino's commendation, he also grieved; "as
having finished a large part of the fresco," he said, "I cannot realize
your conception which is so complete that if the Day of Judgment had
come and you had been present and seen it with your eyes, your words
could not have described it better."
Vittoria Colonna now passed some years between Rome and Orvieto, that
picturesque town with its magnificent cathedral rich in mediaeval art,
where she lived in the convent of St. Paolo d'Orvieto. She varied this
residence by remaining at times in the convent of San Caterina di
Viterbo, in that city. In Rome she had lived both at the convent of
Santa Anna and also at the Palazzo Cesarini, which was the home of
members of the Colonna family. A sonnet of Michael Angelo's written to
Vittoria reflects the feeling that she inspired in him:--
"Da che concetto ha l'arte intera e diva
La forma e gli atti d'alcun, poi di quello
D'umil materia un semplice modello
E 'l primo parto che da quel deriva.
Ma nel secondo poi di pietra viva
S'adempion le promesse del martello;
E si rinasce tal concetto e bello,
Che ma' non e chi suo eterno prescriva.
Simil, di me model, nacqu'io da prima;
Di me model, per cosa piu perfetta
Da voi rinascer poi, donna alta e degna.
Se 'l poco accresce, 'l mio superchio lima
Vostra pieta; qual penitenzia aspetta
Mio fiero ardor, se mi gastiga e insegna?"
Of this sonnet the following beautiful translation is made by John
Addington Symonds:--
"When divine Art conceives a form and face,
She bids the craftsman for his first essay
To shape a simple model in mere clay:
This is the earliest birth of Art's embrace.
From the live marble in the second place
His mallet brings into the light of day
A thing so beautiful that who can say
When time shall conquer that immortal grace?
Thus my own model I was born to be--
The model of that nobler self, whereto
Schooled by your pity, lady, I shall grow.
Each overplus and each deficiency
You will make good. What penance then is due
For my fierce heat, chastened and taught by you?"
The correspondence between Vittoria and Michael Angelo was undated, and
all that now remains is fragmentary.
The great artist, writing to his nephew, Sionardo, in 1554, says:--
"Messer Giovan Francisco Fattucci asked me about a month ago if I
possessed any writings of the marchioness. I have a little book
bound in parchment which she gave me some ten years ago. It has one
hundred and three sonnets, not counting another forty she afterward
sent on paper from Viterbo. I had these bound into the same book,
and at that time I used to lend them about to many persons so that
they are all of them now in print. In addition to these poems I
have many letters which she wrote from Orvieto and Viterbo. These,
then, are the writings I possess of the marchioness."
In Rome, 1545, Michael Angelo thus writes to Vittoria:--
"I desired, lady, before I accepted the things which your ladyship
has often expressed the will to give me--I desired to produce
something for you with my own hand in order to be as little as
possible unworthy of this kindness. I have now come to recognize
that the grace of God is not to be bought, and that to keep it
waiting is a grievous sin. Therefore I acknowledge my error and
willingly accept your favors. When I possess them--not, indeed,
because I shall have them in my house, but for that I myself shall
dwell in them--the place will seem to encircle me with paradise.
For which felicity I shall remain ever more obliged to your
ladyship than I am already, if that is possible.
"The bearer of this letter will be Urbino, who lives in my service.
Your ladyship may inform him when you would like me to come and see
the head you promised to show me."
With this letter Michael Angelo sent to Vittoria a sonnet which, in the
translation made by John Addington Symonds, is as follows:--
"Seeking at least to be not all unfit
For thy sublime and boundless courtesy,
My lowly thoughts at first were fain to try
What they could yield for grace so infinite.
But now I know my unassisted wit
Is all too weak to make me soar so high,
For pardon, lady, for this fault I cry,
And wiser still I grow remembering it.
Yea, will I see what folly 't were to think
That largess dropped from thee like dews from heaven,
Could e'er be paid by work so frail as mine!
To nothingness my art and talent sink;
He fails who from his mental stores hath given
A thousandfold to match one gift divine."
As a gift to Vittoria Colonna, Michael Angelo designed an episode from
the Passion of our Lord, which Condivi describes as "a naked Christ at
the moment when, taken from the cross, our Lord would have fallen at the
feet of His most holy mother if two angels did not support Him in their
arms. She sits below the cross with a face full of tears and sorrow,
lifting both her widespread arms to heaven while on the stem of the tree
above is written this legend: '_Non vi si pensa quanto sangue costa._'
The cross is of the same kind as that which was carried by the White
Friars at the time of the plague of 1348, and afterward deposited in the
Church of Santa Croce at Florence."
In presenting this cross to her he wrote:--
"Lady Marchioness, being myself in Rome, I thought it hardly
fitting to give the Crucified Christ to Messer Tommaso, and to make
him an intermediary between your ladyship and me, especially
because it has been my earnest wish to perform more for you than
for any one I ever knew upon the world. But absorbing occupations,
which still engage me, have prevented my informing your ladyship of
this. Moreover, knowing that you know love needs no taskmaster, and
that he who loves doth not sleep, I thought the less of using
go-betweens. And though I seemed to have forgotten, I was doing
what I did not talk about, in order to effect a thing that was not
looked for, my purpose has been spoiled. He sins who faith like
this so soon forgets."
[Illustration: VITTORIA COLONNA, GALLERIA BUONARROTI, FLORENCE
_Page 312_]
In reply Vittoria Colonna wrote:--
"Unique Master Angelo and my most singular friend: I have received
your letter and examined the crucifix which truly hath crucified in
my memory every other picture I ever saw. Nowhere could one find
another figure of our Lord so well executed, so living, and so
exquisitely finished. I cannot express in words how subtly and
marvellously it is designed. Wherefore I am resolved to take the
work as coming from no other hand but yours.... I have examined it
minutely in full light and by the lens and mirror, and never saw
anything more perfect."
She added:--
"... Your works forcibly stimulate the judgment of all who would
look at them. My study of them made me speak of adding goodness to
things perfect in themselves, and I have seen now that 'all is
possible to him who believes.' I had the greatest faith in God that
He would bestow upon you supernatural grace for the making of this
Christ. When I came to examine it I found it so marvellous that it
surpasses all my expectations. Wherefore, emboldened by your
miracles I conceived a great desire for that which I now see
marvellously accomplished: I mean that the design is in all parts
perfect and consummate. I tell you that I am pleased that the angel
on the right hand is by far the fairer, since Michael will place
you, with all angels, upon the right hand of the Lord some day.
Meanwhile I do not know how else to serve you, than by making
orisons to this sweet Christ, whom you have drawn so well and
exquisitely, and praying you to hold me yours to command as yours
in all and for all."
Again Vittoria wrote to him:--
"I beg you to let me have the crucifix a short while in my keeping,
even though it be unfinished. I want to show it to some gentlemen
who have come from the most reverend, the Cardinal of Mantua. If
you are not working will you not come at your leisure to-day and
talk with me?"
It is an interesting fact to the visitor in the Rome of to-day that the
convent of San Silvestre where Vittoria Colonna lived was attached to
the church of San Silvestre in Capite, now used as the English-speaking
Catholic church in the Eternal City. The wing which was formerly the
convent (founded in 1318) is now converted into the central post office.
It was in the sacristy of San Silvestre, decorated with frescoes by
Domenichino, that a memorable meeting and conversation took place, one
Sunday afternoon in those far-away days of nearly five hundred years
ago, between Michael Angelo and Francesco d'Ollanda, a Spanish miniature
artist,--the meeting brought about by Vittoria Colonna. The Spanish
artist was a worshipper of Michael Angelo, who "awakened such a feeling
of love," that if d'Ollanda met him in the street "the stars would come
out in the sky," he says, "before I would let him go again." This
fervent worship was hardly enjoyed by its object, who avoided the
Spanish enthusiast. One Sunday, however, d'Ollanda had gone to San
Silvestre finding there Tolomei, to whom he was also devoted, and
Vittoria Colonna, both of whom had gone to hear the celebrated Fra
Ambrosia of Siena expound the Epistles of St. Paul. The Marchesa di
Pescara observed that she felt sure their Spanish friend would far
rather hear Michael Angelo discuss painting than to hear Fra Ambrosia on
the wisdom of St. Paul. Summoning an attendant she directed him to find
Michael Angelo and tell him how cool and delightful was the church that
morning and to beg him to join Messer Tolomei and herself; but to make
no mention of the presence of d'Ollanda. Her woman's tact and her
faultless courtesy were successful in procuring this inestimable
privilege for the Spanish painter. Michael Angelo came, and began the
conversation--which was a monologue, rather, as all three of the friends
wished only to listen to the master--by defending artists from the
charge of eccentric and difficult methods. With somewhat startling
candor Michael Angelo proceeded:--
"I dare affirm that any artist who tries to satisfy the better
vulgar rather than men of his own craft will never become a
superior talent. For my part, I am bound to confess that even his
Holiness wearies and annoys me by begging for too much of my
company. I am most anxious to serve him, ... but I think I can do
so better by studying at home than by dancing attendance on my legs
in his reception room."