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There was a delightful example of an unknown primitive master, a fourteenth-century Visitation, in which the Virgin had the stature and pure delicacy of a child of ten, whilst the Archangel, huge and superb, inundated her with a stream of dazzling, superhuman love; and in front of this hung an antique family portrait, depicting a very beautiful young girl in a turban, who was thought to be Cassia Boccanera, the amorosa and avengeress who had flung herself into the Tiber with her brother Ercole and the corpse of her lover, Flavio Corradini.
In 1550 the Duke of Gandia went to Rome to cast himself at the feet of the Pope and to become a member of the Order. Paul III, brother of Giulia Farnese, had just died, and del Monte as Julius III had ascended the papal throne. Ercole II, cousin of Don Francesco, still occupied the ducal throne of Ferrara.
He reported to Ercole that he had stated to the king that the Pope threatened to deprive the duke of his domain if he did not consent to the marriage; whereupon the king replied that Ferrara was under his protection and could fall only when France fell.
'Of that, sir, you may here convince yourself, said the mountebank, putting into his hand a sort of credential in Italian, signed by Renato di Milano, the Queen's perfumer, testifying to the skill of his compatriot Ercole Stizzito both in perfumery, cosmetics, and in the secrets of occult sciences.
Saraceni to Ercole, Rome, September 16th. Rome, September 23d, Saraceni. Despatch, September 25th. To this Ercole replied in reassuring terms. Letter to his orators in Rome, September 18, 1501. Despatch of Matteo Canale to Ercole, Rome, September 18, 1501. Both bulls are in the archives of Modena. The first is a copy, the second an original.
Even Cardinal Ferrante Ferrari ventured to write Ercole whose servant he had been a letter in which he spoke of the duke's daughter-in-law in unctuous terms and praised her character to the skies.
"See that you dress them fittingly." "It shall be done, Magnificent," answered Ercole, with a show of such respect as he had not hitherto manifested. "And arms?" "Give them pikes and arquebuses, if you will; but nothing more. The place we are bound for is well stocked with armour but even that may not be required." "May not be required?" echoed the more and more astonished swashbuckler.
The history of Michelangelo's Leda, which now survives only in doubtful reproductions, may be introduced by a passage from Condivi's account of his master's visit to Ferrara in 1529. "The Duke received him with great demonstrations of joy, no less by reason of his eminent fame than because Don Ercole, his son, was Captain of the Signory of Florence.
We have heard the terms that were offered, and his rejection of them, and I am come to tell you, Ser Ercole, and you, Messer Gonzaga, that I for one will not remain here to be hanged when Roccaleone shall fall into the hands of Gian Maria. And there are others of my comrades who are of the same mind."
In February, 1491, when Ercole, with most brilliant festivities, celebrated the betrothal of his son Alfonso and Anna Sforza, the Menæchmi and one of the comedies of Terence were given. The Amphitryon, which Cagnolo had prepared for the stage, was also played.
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