nsort may still be seen painted in the lunette above the
Cenacolo, as if the duke wished Leonardo's great painting to be
especially associated with her beloved memory; while not only in the
Castello of Milan, but on the site of ducal castles and villas
throughout the Milanese, blocks of stone and marble carved with the
initials of Lodovico and Beatrice are constantly brought to light.

In the midst of these tokens of grief and love for his lost wife, we
come upon a strange incident. That May, Lucrezia Crivelli, the mistress
whose _liaison_ with the duke had caused Beatrice the sorrow which he
now remembered with so much remorse, bore Lodovico a son, who was named
Gianpaolo, and who became a valiant soldier and loyal subject of his
half-brother Duke Francesco Sforza in after days. The Moro, as far as we
know, never renewed his connection with Lucrezia after his wife's death.
The universal testimony of his contemporaries--"he lived chastely and
devoutly, and was a changed man"--seems to bear witness to the contrary;
but in the following August he settled Cussago and Saronno, the lands
which three years before he had given to Beatrice, upon his mistress as
a provision for the son she had borne him, and in the act of donation
speaks expressly of the delight which he had found in her gentle and
excellent company.

Even more strange it sounds in our ears to find Isabella d'Este, only a
year after Beatrice's death, writing to the duke's former mistress,
Cecilia Gallerani, to ask for the loan of her portrait by Leonardo's
hand, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. The fact that a
princess of the proud house of Este, and one who, in the eyes of her
generation, was the model of all virtues, should seek a favour from one
who had wronged her sister so deeply, affords fresh proof how lightly
such _liaisons_ were regarded in those days, and may incline us to be
more lenient in our judgments of the men and women of the Renaissance.

FOOTNOTES:

[65] Luzio-Renier, _op. cit._, p. 639.

[66] C. Magenta, _op. cit._

[67] This valuable and interesting letter is preserved in the State
archives of the House of Este at Modena, and was first published by
Signor Gustavo Uzielli, in his _Leonardo da Vinci e Tre donne Milanesi_,
p. 43.

[68] Muratori, xxiv. 342.

[69] M. Sanuto, _Diarii_, i. 489.

[70] L. Pelissier, _Les Amies de L. Sforza_.

[71] Cantu in A. S. L., 1874, p. 183.

CHAPTER XXVIII

The Marquis of