no, on the
22nd of November. Both the duke and duchess had been fondly attached to
this fair young girl who only four or five months before had become the
wife of Galeazzo, and was one of Beatrice's favourite companions. Her
sudden and premature death threw a gloom over the whole court, and in
elegant verse Niccolo da Correggio deplored the loss of the gentle
maiden who had gone in the flower of her youth to join the blessed
spirits, and grieved for the gallant husband whom a cruel fate had so
early robbed of his bride. There can be little doubt that we have a
portrait of this lamented princess in the beautiful picture of the
Ambrosiana, which, long supposed to be the work of Leonardo, is now
recognized by the best critics as that of Ambrogio de Predis. At one
time this portrait was said to represent Beatrice herself, but neither
the long slender throat nor the delicate features bear the least
resemblance to those of the duchess, while the style of head-dress is
equally unlike that which Beatrice wears in authentic representations.
Again, some critics have supposed the Ambrosian picture to represent
Kaiser Maximilian's wife, Bianca Maria Sforza; but the discovery of
Ambrogio de Predis's actual portrait of the empress, and of his sketch
of her head in the Venetian Academy, have shown this theory to be
impossible. The Venetian Marc Antonio Michieli, who saw this picture in
Taddeo Contarini's house at Venice in 1525, describes it as "a profile
portrait of the head and bust of Madonna, daughter of Signor Lodovico of
Milan," after which he adds, "married to the Emperor Maximilian ... by
the hand of ... _Milanese_." The connoisseur had evidently confused the
two Bianca Sforzas, but now that this mistake has been explained by a
comparison of the Ambrosian portrait with genuine pictures and medals of
the empress, there is no difficulty in accepting the remainder of his
statement. For we have here, there can be little doubt, the portrait of
Lodovico's daughter, by the hand of a Milanese painter, in all
probability, as Morelli divined, the court-painter of the ducal house,
Ambrogio de Predis. And the German critic, Dr. Muller-Walde, is probably
right in his conjecture that the companion picture in the Ambrosiana is
the portrait of Bianca's husband, Galeazzo di Sanseverino. This picture
has been called by many names, and ascribed to many different hands. It
has been described in turn as a portrait of Maximilian, of the
short-lived