TO ISABELLA

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when, in 1506, his son Galeazzo married the fair and accomplished Ginevra Rangoni she presented the bride with a splendid clavichord. "Your Excellency," wrote Niccolo from Correggio, "has sent a most beautiful clavichord to my daughter-in-law, and has very kindly ordered Domino Philippi to put it in order. Besides the thanks which my daughter herself is sending you, I felt that I must thank you personally for these favours, for which we cannot be too grateful. As for the song which you ask me to select from Petrarch, I have chosen one of those which I like best, beginning: Si è debole il filo a cui s'atiene, which seems to me well suited for your purpose, containing verses which must be sung by turn crescendo and diminuendo. With it I send

one of my own songs, composed in a similar metre, which you can sing to the same tune as the Petrarca canzone, and also a poem in imitation of Petrarch's Chiare, dolci e fresche acque. Once more I commend myself to your good graces, and am keeping Domino Philippi till to-morrow."1

But Isabella was never satisfied, and a few months later wrote in great distress because her favourite maid of honour had lately died, and no one could find the last capitoli and sonnets which Niccolo had sent her. Fortunately Niccolo, who, as a rule, never transcribed his verses, was able to supply another copy of the poem beginning with the words: Non si è ardito il cor, which the Marchesa especially wished to read, and with his old gallantry wrote that, old as he was growing, he was still young enough to dance with her, and to ride at the ring, and break a lance, for her sake, in the coming jousts.

1 Luzio e Renier, op. cit., p. 244,

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SERAFINO'S POEMS

Many other poets and artists there were who, like Cristoforo Romano and Niccolo da Correggio, found their way to Mantua or Ferrara, when Beatrice's tragic death had, in Calmeta's words, turned that brilliant court "from a joyous paradise into the blackest hell.” Calmeta himself, "Telegantissimo Calmeta," as he was called by his contemporaries, who had been her sister's secretary, spent some time that summer at Mantua and dedicated his commentary on Petrarch's canzone, Mai non vo cantar, to the Marchesa, and Serafino, the famous singer and actor, who was so great a favourite with all the Este and Gonzaga princes, also accepted Isabella's invitation. During the year which he spent at Mantua, after Beatrice's death, the Duke and Duchess of Urbino begged him in vain to come and amuse them for a little while, and both Cardinal d'Este and his brother Ferrante asked Isabella for copies of his strambotti and capitoli. The Marchesa, however, was very jealous of these poems which Serafino composed for her benefit, and when Bishop Louis Gonzaga of Gazzuolo asked her for a certain capitolo "On Sleep," which the poet had lately written, begged him to keep it under lock and key and not allow any one to see it, as she particularly wished these charming verses not to become public property. This, however," she adds, "you will, I fear, find to be a very difficult thing.""

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But the greatest of all the Milanese artists who came to Mantua after Lodovico Sforza's exile was the Florentine master, Leonardo da Vinci. Isabella had often met the distinguished artist who stood so high in the Moro's favour, and had seen and admired his masterpieces in painting and sculpture. 1 Luzio e Renier, Mantova e Urbino, p. 93.

LEONARDO'S PORTRAIT

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A year after Beatrice's death, on the 26th of April 1498, she sent to beg Cecilia Gallerani, Lodovico's former mistress, to lend her the portrait which Leonardo had painted some years before, in order that she might compare it with some fine portraits by Giovanni Bellini which she had just seen. Cecilia hastened to gratify the Marchesa's wish, and sent back Leonardo's picture by Isabella's messenger, saying that she only wished it were a better likeness; not that this was the master's fault, for there was no painter in the world who could equal him, but because, when he painted it, she was of "youthful and imperfect age."1 Leonardo himself seems to have paid a flying visit to Mantua in the following December, for in a letter from his villa of Goïto, the Marquis desires his treasurer to pay Leonardo the Florentine eleven ducats for certain strings of lute and viol which he had brought from Milan, and begs him to do this at once, in order that the master may be able to continue his journey.2 But we know that he and his friend Luca Pacioli, who dedicated his "Book of Games" to the Marchesa, visited Mantua on their way to Venice at the close of 1499. It was on this occasion that Leonardo drew the beautiful portrait of Isabella, in pastels, which is now in the Louvre. The late M. Yriarte was the first to recognise Isabella's features in this drawing of the Vallardi collection, and although Signor Luzio has lately expressed doubt on the subject, there seems little reason to question the fact. Leonardo has drawn the brilliant Marchesa's portrait in his own fashion1 "Beatrice d'Este," pp. 53, 54.

2 Luzio, Emporium, 1900, p. 352.