Part 7 (1/2)
AN ORGY AT CHIGI'S VILLA
And Chigi made a joyous feast; I never Sat at a costlier; for all round his hall From column on to column, as in a wood, Great garlands swung and blossomed, and beneath Heirlooms and ancient miracles of Art Chalice and salver, wines that Heaven knows when Had sucked the fire of some forgotten sun And kept it through a hundred years of gloom, Yet glowing in a heart of ruby, cups Where nymph and G.o.d ran ever round in gold, Others with gla.s.s as costly, some with gems Movable and resetable at will, And trebling all the rest in value.
Ah! heavens!
Why need I tell you all? Suffice! to say That whatsoever boundless wealth like his, And genius high, can compa.s.s, rare or fair, Was brought before the guest.
TENNYSON:--Altered.
So I found Raphael and so I left him, successful and apparently happy.
Had I comprehended what the incident which I have just related meant to him,--had I even suspected his misconception of the situation,--I might have made him understand that neither at Cetinale nor at Porto d'Anzio had Maria Dovizio sung the _Hymn to Apollo_, that in both places it was Imperia who had chanted, Imperia who had responded to Chigi's caresses, and so this woful misunderstanding might never have divided these young lovers. Maria, far from being Chigi's guest at the moment of the discovery of the _Apollo_, was in Urbino, awaiting in ever-increasing wonder and dismay some word of affection from her betrothed. Failing to receive it she came to Rome, but Raphael held himself aloof, pleading the Pope's demands upon his time. He thought that she would understand the cause of his neglect, and herself sunder the engagement, for he would not shame her by any accusation.
One ineffaceable picture of my friend I carried with me into my exile, for going to the Vatican to bid Raphael farewell, I was told that he was in the Pope's villa of the Belvedere superintending the placing of the _Apollo_, which had just arrived. The guards barred my entrance to the loggia, and indeed I cared not to intrude, for I saw that the Pope was there, gazing at the statue with a grim delight, as though he believed that the G.o.d had descended to earth to expel as of old the barbarian Gauls.
Raphael stood entranced, unmindful of the presence of Maria Dovizio, who sat a little apart, heart-sick and bewildered, unable to grope her way through the thick fog of misconception which had drifted between herself and her beloved.
And over all the white form of _Apollo_ gleamed in heartless gladness, untouched by any feeling for his votary's sins of ignorance for which he would cry in vain repentance, ”Had I but known, had I but known!”
It was impossible for me to tarry longer in Rome without employment, and I bethought me of the monks of Oliveto, and how they had asked for a series of paintings for their cloister. To this refuge, therefore, I repaired, completing, in two years, thirty-one great frescoes for little more than my sustenance. Yea; and for my belly's sake I might have accepted the life of a cowled monk, had not Chigi in the nick of time drawn me from that slough with the announcement that Peruzzi had completed the building of his villa, and that it was now ready for decoration.
Here accordingly, while painting in the upper rooms, I enjoyed the comrades.h.i.+p of that brotherhood of choice spirits--Giovanni da Udine, Francesco Penni, and the rest--who with thee, my Giulio, wrought so lovingly under Raphael's direction, illuminating the lower loggia with the legend of _Cupid and Psyche_.
It is true that to my surprise and sorrow Raphael himself came not, but I knew that he was overwhelmed with commissions, and to their demands upon his time I attributed his avoidance of the villa. In the meantime I delayed not to seek him out, and to express my surprise that I found him still a bachelor. But at my first probing of that old wound he winced so perceptibly that I perceived that it was by no means cured, and I made no demand upon his confidence for an explanation of his delay in demanding the consummation of an engagement which had not been publicly dissolved.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _Alinari_
Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, called Sodoma
From the portrait of himself in the Abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore]
The world gossiped as to the cause of Raphael's neglect of his affianced. The most part declared him cold, absorbed only in love of his art, and some whispered that the Pope who was insatiable in his demands for his work, feared that marriage would lessen his enthusiasm for art, and had put off indefinitely the wedding-day, promising Raphael the Cardinal's hat if he remained a celibate.
While I could not believe that this was the true explanation of the estrangement between the lovers, I was far from suspecting the truth.
Though I called upon Maria Dovizio I got no enlightenment in that quarter, nay, nor encouragement for my own pa.s.sion, for when I put forth some timid essays, they were promptly crushed by a look of such reproach that I called myself brute as well as fool for my persistency.
Longing to do her service, I determined to haunt my friend until he should voluntarily confide the secret of the trouble, and if it were possible bring them together.
With this end in view, in all my leisure hours I frequented Raphael's studio, where he was painting the most glorious of his Madonnas for the monks of San Sisto. And here, posing for that divine work, I found again our child-model of Cetinale, the little Margherita.
She was no longer a child, for the years which had elapsed had transformed her into a woman; but she had retained her old characteristics of shyness, simplicity, and a wors.h.i.+pful love of Raphael. She had followed him to Rome, so he told me, like some faithful, dumb animal which could not live away from its master, and moved by her great affection he had given her lodging and employment as his model. There lacked not malicious tongues who called her his mistress; but so modest yet unabashed was her demeanour that I can well believe that she deserved to the end the honour which he paid in choosing her face as his ideal of all that is n.o.blest in woman.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _Alinari_
Margherita (La Fornarina), Attributed to Raphael
Pitti Gallery, Florence]
While I worked at Chigi's villa my patron gave me much of his company; for though the decorations were unfinished he had established his residence here. Imperia was his guest at this time, and as we sat at table one evening Chigi complained in her presence that Raphael slighted his engagements and avoided his company.
”Have I not heard,” Imperia hazarded boldly, ”that he is to marry the Maria Dovizio whom I met at Cetinale?”
”If her uncle speaks true,” Chigi replied, ”Raphael is but a recalcitrant lover, continually putting off the date of the marriage.