Fresco Decorations and Stuccoes of Churches and Palaces, in Italy, During the Xvth and Xvith Centuries with Descriptions by Lewis Gruner, and a Comparison Between the Ancient Arabesques & Those of the Xvith Century by MR A. Volume 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1844 edition. Excerpt: ...are adorned with as many medallions; 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; but as Tasso was born in 1544, and the Villa Lante was painted about 1524, the name of the latter has evidently been misapplied; 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 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, ' Datario, quell0 che presiede all' uficio cardinalizio in Roma, cosi detto dalla data delle suppliche segnate. Alberti Datario, ...