Part 8 (1/2)
But there were other forces at work on which I had not counted, and the first of these was Chigi.
Something like the same chain of reasoning had been started in his mind by my mention of Margherita, but he had reached the conclusion that Raphael's infatuation for his pretty model must be encouraged. He therefore privately requested me to induce her, by exactly the same arguments which we had already employed, to do precisely what she had already done.
The humour of the situation was so great that I burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter.
This so angered the unsuspecting man that I managed to e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.e between my paroxysms: ”Margherita in this villa! And what pray you would the Signora Imperia say to that?”
At this question Chigi whistled. ”I had forgotten Imperia,” he admitted, and then to my utter confusion that lady entered the room with her arm about the waist of Margherita.
Never before had I seen Imperia unable to give a plausible account of a situation, but while she hesitated, Margherita did her good service by telling the simple truth. She thanked Chigi warmly for his patronage of Raphael, and explained how Imperia and she had plotted to induce him to complete the frescoes.
”And you did this to give me pleasure?” Chigi asked, regarding Imperia with wonder and admiration. She felt her advantage and found her tongue.
”You little know your Imperia,” she said, sweetly; and true though the words were he understood them falsely, as she meant he should, and the recording angel gave her credit for a lie.
”I am more grateful than I can express,” cried Chigi, ”for I have great need of Raphael at this moment, and you, dearest Imperia, shall never regret this kindness.”
”We have played into the hands of the enemy,” Imperia said to me in a low voice as Chigi darted away to write to Raphael; ”nevertheless the game is not yet lost. I know my dear Agostino's cards, and though they are good ones I have some which he recks not of and he shall never wed the fair Maria.”
A wonderful woman was this Imperia, as I was beginning to realise, though I had not yet sounded the depths of that strange nature.
Chigi's letter to Raphael was a masterpiece of duplicity. He confided to him as the most sacred secret the information that his engagement to a certain mutual acquaintance of Cetinale days would soon be announced, and he begged his friend, for the sake of the lady, to give his personal and inimitable touch to the frescoes of _Cupid and Psyche_, and to other decorations in the villa which he was preparing for his bride. Although he also confessed the stratagem by which he had secured the presence of Margherita, it was the news of Chigi's approaching marriage which determined Raphael to accede to his request. Though Agostino had worded his allusions to his betrothed so skilfully that they applied with equal fitness to either Imperia or Maria Dovizio, Raphael never doubted that he referred to the latter. The news simply confirmed the suspicions which he had long entertained, and with characteristic magnanimity, he determined to leave Maria the highest masterpiece of which his hand was capable.
He came at once, and Imperia sat smiling at his side while he painted Margherita as the princ.i.p.al figure in the glorious _Triumph of Galatea_, Chigi, marking Margherita's look of rapt devotion, drew me aside in ecstacy. ”It is plain that they love each other,” he said. ”When the picture is nearly finished I will invite Bernardo Dovizio and his niece to see it. They will understand the relations of this artist and model.
He is cutting his own throat with every stroke of his facile brush, for Maria Dovizio will brook no divided affection.”
But when in alarm I reported this conversation to Imperia--”Children!”
she cried scornfully; ”what children you men are! Can you not see, Giovanni, that, though Margherita wors.h.i.+ps her painter as a G.o.d, he cares for her only as a piece of stuff, a marble column, or a jewel, beautiful truly and therefore serviceable to paint from, but nothing more. Let Agostino bring Maria Dovizio here. I desire nothing more warmly than to compa.s.s her meeting with Raphael. But give me a moment with her to prepare her for that meeting, and one in which to withdraw Margherita and all others from the scene, and think you that in the joy of their reconciliation either he or she will give a thought to his picture or to the models who posed for it?”
[Ill.u.s.tration: _Alinari_
Pope Leo X,
Giulio de Medici (afterward Pope Clement VII), and
Luigi De Rossi, by Raphael
Pitti Gallery]
Chigi did not at once carry out his intention of inviting the Dovizios to his villa, for another project for the moment eclipsed that design and demands a temporary digression from my story; for if he was to be reckoned with as a lover, in a review of the hidden causes which brought about the catastrophe, he is still less to be neglected in his proper role of financier.
Pope Leo X. was to discover this as his predecessor Julius had done, and with more reason, for Leo was the greater borrower, all of his family and the adherents of the Medici descending upon him on his accession to the papacy like a flock of buzzards. Julius had left the papal coffers well filled, but Leo had not only emptied them, but he had antic.i.p.ated his own revenues and those of his successor. Truly was it said after his death, that upon his family and the building of Saint Peter's he had spent the income of three pontificates. Chigi was not distressed that there was no likelihood that the Pope would ever repay what he owed, for he had not only received ample security through Dovizio at Cetinale, but there were richer spoils in view which made that transaction seem of trifling account. Agostino desired to become the sole manager of the papal finances; and he did indeed inaugurate that system of loans by which the Pope's entire revenue was not sufficient to meet the interest on his debts.
As a means of impressing Leo not only with his friends.h.i.+p but with his boundless wealth, he determined to entertain his Holiness with hospitality so lavish that it would put to shame the very feasts of Lucullus. Leo was in a certain way to blame for this foolish display, for Cardinal Riario was building his palace at this time, and his Holiness piqued Chigi by insinuating that the residence of Riario would rival the one which he was erecting. To this slur Chigi retorted hotly that Riario's palace would not be able to compare with his own stables.
It was no empty boast, but in order to realise it our patron immediately put a stop to the work upon the main villa and, as you, my Giulio, will well remember, set us all to the task of transforming the larger building upon the river bank (originally planned to house his stud of horses) into an immense banqueting-hall. The stalls of inlaid woods were concealed by the Medici tapestries; and by means of stucco, paint, lavish gilding, and innumerable sparkling lights, depending in crystal l.u.s.tres and silver lamps, we achieved an effect of magnificence unsurpa.s.sed by the imaginary creations of oriental enchanters.
In this gorgeous apartment, carpeted by rugs given Chigi by eastern princes and crowded with the costliest works of art, was served a feast for whose menu the scholars of the city ransacked the records of the orgies of the Roman emperors. The cardinals and foreign amba.s.sadors invited were surprised by dainties and wines peculiar to their own countries, timed to arrive in Rome from many distant lands on the very eve of the banquet. Golden beakers richly ornamented in _repousse_ with baccha.n.a.lian subjects, and engraved with the coat of arms of the guest before whom they were placed, were provided with every different wine, and the convives were begged to accept the entire set as trifling mementos. To prove that the plates of solid gold on which the many courses were served were not used twice, they were when changed ostentatiously cast through the open windows into the Tiber.