whenever you please I will take it on myself to show you what you have to do, for the purpose of making your figure complete.” “I entreat you to do so, my lord,” replied Francesco; and the Marquis said, “When next you have your porter bound here, cause me to be summoned, and I will show you what you ought to do.”
The following day, therefore, when Francesco had fastened up the porter in the manner he thought best, he caused the Marquis to be secretly called, but without knowing what the latter intended to do. Shortly afterwards, the Prince burst forth from a neighbouring apartment in a state of great fury, and with a cross-bow ready charged in his hand: “Traitor,” he exclaimed in a loud voice, rushing on the porter, “traitor, thou art a dead man; I have caught thee at last as I would have thee! ” with other exclamations of similar character. The unlucky porter, hearing these words, and considering himself in danger of death, made the most desperate efforts to break the ropes wherewith he was bound, and in struggling with his fetters, and in the agitation he betrayed, did truly represent one who was on the point of being shot to death with arrows; his countenance and the distortion of his struggling limbs alike betokening his fear and horror of death, with the efforts he made to escape the peril by flight.nota
That done, the Marquis said to Francesco, “Now he is precisely in the condition that he ought to be, the rest I leave to yourself;” which the master having well considered, then gave his figure all the perfection that could be imagined. Many other things were painted by Francesco in the Gonzaga Palace,nota the Election of the first Lords of Mantua for example, with the Tournaments which were held on the Piazza di San Piero, a perspective view of which is here given.
Now it chanced that the Grand Turk had sent a man of [1] [2]
- ↑ The remarks made by the commentators of our author, native and foreign, on the one-sided or rather defective perception here permitted to prevail, of what was demanded on this particular occasion, when it was not a reluctant criminal, but a resigned and patient martyr, who was to be depicted, are such as will have presented themselves to our readers, and cannot here find more than this passing allusion to their character.
- ↑ Carlo d’Arco, in his work entitled Monumenti Mantovani, gives a plate of a fine painting by this master, which is now in the Public Gallery of Mantua. It represents Christ on his way to Calvary.
