To convince
ourselves of it, we are not obliged to take as our standard the
idealized society which Castiglione depicts as discussing the loftiest
sentiments and aims of human life at the court of Guidobaldo of Urbino,
and Pietro Bembo at the castle of Asolo The society described by
Bandello, with all the frivolities which may be laid to its charge,
enables us to form the best notion of the easy and polished dignity, of
the urbane kindliness, of the intellectual freedom, of the wit and the
graceful dilettantism, which distinguished these circles. A significant
proof of the value of such circles lies in the fact that the women who
were the centers of them could become famous and illustrious without in
any way compromising their reputation. Among the patronesses of
Bandello, for example, Isabella Gonzaga (born an Este) was talked of
unfavorably not through any fault of her own, but on account of the
too-free-lived young ladies who filled her court. Giulia Gonzaga
Colonna, Ippolita Sforza married to a Bentivoglio, Bianca Rangona,
Cecilia Gallerana, Camilla Scarampa, and others, were either altogether
irreproachable, or their social fame threw into the shade whatever they
may have done amiss. The most famous woman of Italy, Vittoria Colonna
(b. 1490, d. 1547), the friend of Castiglioni and Michelangelo, enjoyed
the reputation of a saint.
Pages:
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438