The Pope's Daughter: The Extraordinary Life of Felice Della Rovere (11 page)

Prudentia
was in fact a much greater asset to Felice than mere prettiness. It was a far more enduring quality than physical beauty, which would quickly fade. Moreover,
prudentia
could lead to the acquisition of personal attributes that could manifest themselves physically and which Renaissance Italy valued as highly as
bellezza
.
Magnificentia
(magnificence) and
grazia
(grace) contributed to the formation of a compelling persona, and allowed one to cultivate a quality still highly prized in modern Italy:
la bella figura
.
Fare la bella figura
, literally to ‘cut a fine figure’ means every movement, gesture, manner, activity is flawless. In Renaissance Italy,
bella figura
was understood as
sprezzatura
, which is best translated as the achievement of brilliance with apparent ease and lack of effort. To possess
sprezzatura
was the supreme goal of every ambitious Renaissance courtier.
Sprezzatura
’s chief proponent, who also provided advice and lessons on how to acquire it, was Baldessar Castiglione. Castiglione’s friendship and approbation was something Felice sought out following her father’s election as pope.

Castiglione was Mantuan by birth and had grown up in the orbit of the Gonzaga court. In
1499
, at the age of twenty-one, he entered the service of Francesco Gonzaga, the Marquis of Mantua. His humanist education and knowledge of Latin and Greek made him a prime candidate for the Mantuan diplomatic corps and over the next few years he journeyed to Milan, Pavia and Naples as the representative for Mantua. In late
1504
, Francesco Gonzaga, whose aunt Elizabetta was married to Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, agreed to let him transfer his service to the court of Urbino. He became invaluable to the artist Raphael, a native of Urbino, and gave him personal advice on how to conduct himself at court, contributing greatly to the success of his artistic career. In return, Raphael painted a portrait of his friend which is the visual embodiment of
sprezzatura
. The palette of the portrait is muted, greys and browns, which renders his piercing blue eyes all the more striking. Castiglione appears soberly dressed, in a hat and fur doublet. But the hat covers his baldness and fur was usually worn on the inside not the outside of a coat, for greater warmth. But how then would the viewer of his image know that Castiglione was the proud owner of such a luxurious garment? Renaissance Italy produced many career diplomats but none whose ear was so finely attuned to the subtleties and nuances of the position of the courtier than Castiglione. No one better understood the importance of self-presentation. For Castiglione, the manner in which one did something – speaking, singing, playing an instrument, telling a story or a joke – was as important as the actual substance of the activity. The critical element in courtly exchange was perception. How one was perceived by colleagues and superiors at court was at least as important as what one actually was. Such notions were deeply embedded in the Italian way of thinking. The ancient Latin word
honestas
meant honest and worthy but it was also the word for reputation and the respect given you by others.

Castiglione’s experiences and advice for the aspiring courtier would eventually be collected in his manual of etiquette and behaviour,
Il Cortegiano
, or
The Book of the Courtier
.
Il Cortegiano
endured as an international bestseller for well over a hundred years and was translated into seven languages. Its use as a conduct book is best summarized by the addenda to the title of the
1561
English edition: ‘Verie Necessarie and Profitable for Young Gentlemen and Gentlewomen, Abiding in Court, Palace or Place’.
2

Although his book was not published until
1528
, the year before his death, Castiglione began writing his text in
1514
. Most of its characters, stories and examples were drawn from the early
1500
s, when Castiglione first went to work for the court of Urbino.
Il Cortegiano
is conceived as a series of evenings of imaginary conversation between the real-life nobles and scholars whose presence frequently graced the court of Urbino. Castiglione’s gathering included Elizabetta Gonzaga da Montefeltro, the Duchess of Urbino; her lady-in-waiting, Emilia Pia; her nephew, Cesare Gonzaga; Medici family representative Cardinal Bernardo Bibbiena and the humanist poet L’Unico Aretino. The group began by considering what made the perfect male courtier. Although the protagonists disagreed over whether being well born was a necessity, they determined he should speak and write well and be an able fighter and an accomplished musician.
³
Over and over again they stressed the importance of grace to the courtier, judging that ‘he should accompany all his motion with a certain good judgement and grace’, or that ‘some are born indeed with such grace, that they seem not to have been born, but rather fashioned with the very hand of some God’.
⁴

The participants in Castiglione’s dialogue next turned their attention to defining the quintessential female courtier. Much of the discussion focused on her intrinsic qualities rather than any acquired skills. Grace and good manners were paramount, as were modesty and elegance in both her person and dress. For some, she should be little different from her male counterpart.

‘I will’, declared Cesare Gonazaga, ‘that this woman have accomplishment in letters, music, drawing, painting, skilful in dancing and in divising sports and pastimes and the other principles that have been taught the courtier.’
5
Cesare Gonzaga also emphasizes that the ideal courtly lady should possess ‘nobleness, courage, temperance, strength of mind, and wisdom’, and directs the conversation towards the importance of a woman’s sense of personal honour and chastity. He asks, ‘How many do the vilest things from fear of death? And yet a tender and delicate girl often resists all these fierce and strong assaults, for many have been known who chose to die rather than to lose their chastity.Another participant, Gaspare Pallavacino,’
6
expresses scepticism that such women exist ‘in the world today’, which provides Cesare with the opportunity to provide multiple examples of such heroic women. His first examples are actually anonymous: a young Capuan woman, captured by the French soldiers, who chose to drown herself rather than be ravished by them; a Mantuan peasant girl who had been raped and who too preferred a watery grave to a life dishonoured; a Roman girl lured to the dark recesses of the church of San Sebastiano by a man inflamed by lust for her, who killed her after she refused his advances. And then Cesare says:

But to speak of persons known to you, do you not recall having heard how Signora Felice della Rovere was journeying to Savona and fearing that some sails that were sighted might be ships of Pope Alexander in pursuit of her, made ready with some steadfast resolution to throw herself into the sea in case they should approach and there was no means of escape. And you must not think she did this out of any passing whim, for you know as well as anyone else what intelligence and wisdom accompany this lady’s singular beauty.
⁷

Felice della Rovere is
Il Cortegiano
’s only example of a modern noblewoman prepared to die to defend her honour. Cesare Gonzaga then had to move into somewhat tamer territory, praising the chastity of his aunt, Elizabetta Gonzaga, in the light of her husband Guidobaldo’s well-documented impotence. This story about Felice is certainly the most dramatic reference to a real-life woman to be found anywhere in the book. Female rulers such as the Empress Matilda and Isabella of Castile are revered for their governing abilities and the women of the d’Este family – Isabella, Beatrice and their mother Eleonora di Aragona – are extolled for their multiple virtues. Yet again, the story of Felice’s journey and her brave resolution confirms how unusual she was in Renaissance Italy.

Undoubtedly Castiglione had heard this story about Felice’s adventures from Felice herself. In January
1505
he arrived on secondment in Rome to discuss the matter of who would inherit the Urbino dukedom with Pope Julius II. There he met Felice, currently in the throes of arguing with her father about Roberto di Sanseverino. For Felice, winning Castiglione’s confidence was a strategic move. The diplomat held sway and influence at two important Italian courts, Urbino and Mantua. His good opinion of her could prove invaluable political cachet.

There is no doubt that Castiglione was intrigued by Felice della Rovere. While the Duke he served found her ‘unstable’, for Castiglione she was lively and intelligent. Their friendship lasted several decades. Castiglione exhibited some contradictions between his prescriptions for ideal female behaviour and the actual women whose company he enjoyed. The female courtier of his book is supposed to be endowed with modesty and a good degree of subservience; in real life Castiglione admired intelligent, lively and outspoken women who could ‘entertain all kinds of men with talk worth the hearing’.
⁸
The most engaging participant in
Il Cortegiano
is the feisty Emilia Pia, who is always ready to mock her male companions. Described by Castiglione as ‘endowed with so lively a wit and judgement that she seemed the mistress and kingleader of all the company’, she was likely to have been the model for Shakespeare’s own most lively heroine, Beatrice in
Much Ado About Nothing
.
9
Felice’s reputation as headstrong and self-assertive and her own ‘ready liveliness of wit’, undoubtedly appealed to Castiglione before he had even met her.

The tale recounted in
Il Cortegiano
of Felice at sea, fleeing from the Borgia ships, reveals a great deal not only about her personality but about how she wished to be perceived. Certainly her declaration that she would rather throw herself in the sea than be taken alive by Borgia sailors is in keeping with that same strength of character that flouted her father’s wish for her to marry the Sanseverino Prince. At the same time, there was also a level of calculation to Felice’s retelling this event to a man with a good classical education. It casts her in the guise of an ancient Roman heroine, Lucrezia, Sofonisba or Artemisia, who all chose death rather than relinquish their virtue. Julius’s Vatican court was one obsessed by the recovery of ancient Rome. It was appropriate that the spirit of such women should be found in the daughter of the Pope who had named himself for a hero of the ancient world. At the same time, the story also allows Felice to make reference to her della Rovere roots. Not only was she travelling to Savona, her ancestral home, but she was at sea, which played an important part in della Rovere mythology.
The Miracle of Savona
, one element of the autobiographical fresco cycle commissioned by Sixtus IV at the Roman church of Santo Spirito in Sassia in
1476
, depicts a legendary event from the Pope’s life. As a young boy, he fell into the sea but was rescued from drowning by St Francis and St Anthony of Padua. Felice, recognizing that her place in the della Rovere family had been marginalized, was anxious to affirm her standing within the family in the public sphere by identifying herself with the sea, a distinct della Rovere emblem. Metaphorically, to throw herself into the sea rather than be taken by her father’s enemies was to return to the bosom of the family.

Felice’s tale also suggests that the relationship between herself and Julius was closer than it might have appeared to those at the Vatican witnessing the sometimes awkward father–daughter dynamic. The event at sea took place when Julius was still a cardinal and Alexander VI occupied the papal throne. The enmity between Alexander and Julius, who spent much time scheming to disrupt the Borgia papacy when he was a cardinal, was well known. One of the points to Felice’s story is to suggest that the Borgia were prepared to attack Julius by boldly kidnapping his daughter at sea, an act hardly worthwhile if Julius did not value her. Moreover, Felice’s own decision to die rather than be taken by the Borgia indicates that the enemy of the father had become the enemy of the daughter. Without even mentioning her father in this story, the bond between the Pope and his daughter is made explicit.

This meeting between Castiglione and Felice at the Vatican court cemented a lifelong friendship between the two. It was also a conduit to another relationship that Felice greatly desired, friendship with Isabella d’Este. Seven years Felice’s senior, Isabella was the eldest daughter of Ercole d’Este, the Duke of Ferrara.
¹⁰
In
1490
she had married Francesco Gonzaga, the Marquis of Mantua. Isabella and Felice were not unlike in character: both were strong-willed, and each had a tremendous sense of herself, a fixed determination to get what she wanted, and a dislike of compromise. But whereas Felice had had to fight for her place in the world, Isabella had grown up only too secure of hers. She was wife, daughter and sister to Italy’s wealthiest dukes; her own sister Beatrice was the wife of the Duke of Milan. Isabella was undoubtedly the best socially connected woman in Renaissance Italy. Although undeniably self-indulgent and never a ruler in her own right, Isabella nonetheless actively participated in the brokering of marriages between royal households. She fashioned herself as a patron in the tradition of the great male
maeceni
of the Renaissance, such as Cosimo and Lorenzo de’ Medici. She commissioned and secured works by many of the great Renaissance artists, Mantegna, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Titian. An enthusiastic singer, she developed a choral group at Mantua, and also encouraged humanist scholarship. She amassed a large personal library, and promoted poets and writers at the Mantuan court. Her ‘personal’ poet, Niccolò da Correggio, coined for her the name with which she is still associated, ‘la prima donna del mondo’, first lady of the world.
¹¹